Don Nardella cut a lonely figure in the Victorian Parliament last week. After 25 years in politics, the former Labor deputy speaker was on his own – banished to the crossbench in disgrace, blinded by self-interest and greed.
The problem for Daniel Andrews is that he knows this story well – and sometimes it ends badly.
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Photo: Chris Ware
In a bizarre coincidence, it was exactly four years ago last Monday that Liberal Premier Ted Baillieu was forced to resign after a tumultuous half-term dealing with a rorting politician by the name of Geoff Shaw.
Now it is Andrews – the very Labor leader who capitalised on the Shaw controversy – to face his own expenses scandal. History certainly has a way of coming back to bite you.
In the end, the political execution was swift. On Tuesday morning, just before caucus met, Nardella had been summonsed to a meeting with Andrews and his big guns: Deputy Premier James Merlino, Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings, Police Minister Lisa Neville and Manager of Government Business Jacinta Allan.
The Premier's message to the Melton MP was simple: either pay back the $113,000 he'd dubiously claimed for a "second residence" in Ocean Grove, or resign from the party's parliamentary team. Defiant as always, Nardella chose the latter.
Unlike Shaw's defection in 2013, this resignation is unlikely to trouble Andrews' legislative agenda because Labor still has a majority in the lower house, and Nardella, still a party member of the ALP, is expected to keep voting with his former colleagues.
But otherwise, the same hallmarks are there: internal dissent, chaos in Parliament, the perception of a Premier swinging from one crisis to the next.
As one of Andrews' senior Labor allies told The Sunday Age last week: "I'm worried – we seem to be spending a lot of time putting out spot fires. I'm actually starting to think about the possibility of a one-term Andrews government."
The political mess can't be underestimated, particularly given Labor only needs three of its seats to fall at next year's election to lose majority government.
Andrews now has the dubious honour of being the only Victorian premier to lose three ministers from cabinet (Adem Somyurek, Jane Garrett, Steve Herbert), one government whip (Cesar Melhem), and a now and speaker and his deputy (Telmo Languiller and Nardella, both over expense scandals).
Caucus MPs are furious, some saying there's been no clear strategy to manage the latest rort, which has once again sucked oxygen from the issues they'd rather be talking about: stamp duty cuts, penalty rates, level crossing removals.
And others want Nardella gone altogether, seething that a bloke who was meant to represent working class families and uphold parliamentary standards will retire at the next election with the money he claimed – and a hefty superannuation payout. "My electorate has nothing but contempt for him," said Ivanhoe Labor MP Anthony Carbines. "He should resign from the Parliament immediately."
The latest debacle could arguably have been negated if the government had acted sooner to fix Victoria's flimsy entitlements system instead of burying its head in the sand. Last year, for instance, when then corrections minister Steve Herbert was caught using his taxpayer-funded car to chauffer his dogs around the state, Andrews initially stood by the MP, saying that Herbert had apologised for his mistake. According to the Premier, that was good enough.
A similar reluctance was shown in January, after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull unveiled new reforms to counter public fury over former health minister Sussan Ley's travel expenses, including better reporting and an independent watchdog overseeing MPs' perks.
While the Victorian Coalition and the Greens both agreed that changes were needed at Spring Street, the Premier, through his spokeswoman, said this was unnecessary.
Only now has the government snapped into action, vowing to fix a system that has been opaque, complex, and open to abuse for years. One can only hope this will result in the scrapping of entitlements that don't meet community standards, as well as independent oversight and enforceable sanctions for future breaches.
In the meantime, some transparency about the way the former speaker and deputy speaker used the second residence allowance wouldn't hurt either. After all, it's our money.
Was the Ocean Grove residence for which Nardella claimed $113,000 merely a caravan, as suspected? Is there any proof that Languiller actually resides in Queenscliff, the seaside town where he claimed almost $40,000 to live? Has Nardella ever used parliamentary entitlements to prop up the other properties he's had over the years? According to the registry of interests, there have been a few.
These were among the many questions Andrews was asked last week, but his answers were broadly same: that such matters were currently being investigated by Parliament's audit committee, which is due report within days.
Whatever the findings, there's no doubt the government has already suffered considerably damage, particularly if you accept the latest ReachTEL poll putting Labor behind the Coalition, 46 to 54 per cent on two-party terms. And not surprisingly, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has sniffed blood, using the Premier's very own attack strategy.
Remember how Andrews branded Shaw as the "rorting member for Frankston"? Coalition MPs now describe Nardella as the "rorting member for Melton."
Remember when Andrews used to challenge Denis Napthine not to accept Shaw's "tainted vote"? As Guy repeatedly pointed out this week, the Premier is now doing the same.
Or what about when Andrews accused the former government of "lurching from crisis to crisis"? Guy's new narrative is that Andrews runs a "sleazy, crisis-ridden government" plagued by dodgy MPs.
What goes around clearly comes around at Spring Street, but the government will obviously be hoping the latest debacle doesn't lead to the same one-term fate as its predecessor.
Farrah Tomazin is The Sunday Age's political editor. @FarrahTomazin