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Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, and welcome to the Daily Oz today the

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Speaker 1: thirteenth of October, and we are here to take you

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Speaker 1: through the day's news. As always, we'll run through the

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Speaker 1: COVID numbers before doing a bit of a deep dive

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Speaker 1: into what branch stacking is, because it's been in the

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Speaker 1: news a lot lately and it's a bit complex. But first,

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Speaker 1: Victoria yesterday recorded oney four hundred and sixty six cases.

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Speaker 1: New South Wales recorded three hundred and sixty cases, and

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Speaker 1: the ACT recorded twenty eight cases.

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Speaker 2: Australian Holocaust survivor Eddie Jcu, who is well known for

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Speaker 2: his best selling book The Happiest Man Alive, has passed

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Speaker 2: away at the age of one hundred and one. Prime

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Speaker 2: Minister Scott Morrison said he was quote an inspiration and

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Speaker 2: a joy.

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Speaker 1: The Act's Chief Minister, Andrew Barr confirmed yesterday that Canberra

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Speaker 1: will emerge from lockdown on Friday as planned. It comes

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Speaker 1: as seventy two percent of the population is fully vaccinated,

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Speaker 1: with an astounding ninety eight percent having received their first dose.

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Speaker 2: Good news for future travelers, with a new domestic airline

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Speaker 2: offering budget flights that will launch at the beginning of

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Speaker 2: next year. In Australia. It's going to be called Bonza

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Speaker 2: Airlines and they say they're planned to focus on travel

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Speaker 2: to regional Australia rather than the competitive markets in Sydney,

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Speaker 2: Melbourne and Brisbane dominated by Jetstar and Virgin The.

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Speaker 1: Good news today is that Victoria has hit the sixty

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Speaker 1: percent double dose vaccination rate. It comes as Victoria's Chief

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Speaker 1: Health Officer, Brett Sudden said he was cautiously optimistic about

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Speaker 1: declining case numbers over the past couple of days.

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Speaker 2: So on Monday, Victorian Labor Minister Luke Dannellen resigned from

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Speaker 2: cabinet after being accused of paying for other people's party memberships.

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Speaker 2: This came amid an independent Broad Based Anti Corruption Commission

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Speaker 2: or IBACK investigation into allegations of branch stacking in the

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Speaker 2: Victorian Labor Party. Corruption seems to be a major part

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Speaker 2: of the news cycle in October, so we thought we'd

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Speaker 2: take a moment to break down this notion of branch stacking.

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Speaker 2: Zare you're the resident branch stacking expert. What exactly is

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Speaker 2: branch stacking?

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Speaker 1: So, branch stacking is basically the practice of improperly growing

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Speaker 1: any political parties membership so that your favored candidate is chosen.

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Speaker 1: It's a way to influence preselections, which we know is

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Speaker 1: the process for selecting a political candidate, as well as

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Speaker 1: influencing positions on certain policy issues. IBACK, which is Victoria's

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Speaker 1: corruption body, has described the process as organizing people to

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Speaker 1: join a political party which they have little genuine interest

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Speaker 1: in joining. Before we go any further, though, it is

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Speaker 1: important to note a few things about branch stacking that

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Speaker 1: often come up in questions that we receive. So the

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Speaker 1: first is that branch stacking happens on both sides of politics.

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Speaker 1: This is not unique to the Labor Party. Last year,

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Speaker 1: we know that there was an investigation that aired allegations

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Speaker 1: of branch stacking within the Victorian Liberals. The second thing

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Speaker 1: is that branch stacking is not actually illegal. It does

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Speaker 1: very much go against the rules of both major parties,

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Speaker 1: so both of the Libs and Labor, but it only

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Speaker 1: becomes illegal if the members forged signatures or fake addresses,

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Speaker 1: which then takes them into the territory of fraud. So

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Speaker 1: the reason that we're talking about branch stacking is because IBACK,

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Speaker 1: which I said earlier, is the Corruption Body is holding

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Speaker 1: hearings as part of an operation. So it's calls Operation Watts,

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Speaker 1: and it's an investigation into allegations of branch stacking and

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Speaker 1: the misuse of taxpayer funds for party purposes. It comes

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Speaker 1: after the nine networks, specifically The Age and sixty Minutes

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Speaker 1: broke a story last year about alleged branch stacking within

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Speaker 1: the Victorian Labor Party. On Monday, Federal Labor MP Anthony

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Speaker 1: Byrne confirmed in an eyeback hearing that he had engaged

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Speaker 1: in branch stacking, and he also confirmed that Luke Dannellan

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Speaker 1: had paid for other people's membership fees. If you'll recall,

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Speaker 1: Luke Dennellen is the person who we said at the

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Speaker 1: top of this had resigned. Anthony Byrne, however, has not resigned.

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Speaker 2: So basically, what I'm hearing is that branch stacking is

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Speaker 2: when people are recruited into the branch of a political

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Speaker 2: party without necessarily having an interest in being recruited to

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Speaker 2: that branch, or that their memberships are being paid for

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Speaker 2: by other people, and that seems to be what's happened

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Speaker 2: in Victoria.

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Speaker 1: That's a big thing, is that taxpayer money is allegedly

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Speaker 1: being used to shore up this support so to get

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Speaker 1: these numbers and pay for these memberships, and the effort

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Speaker 1: that goes into getting those numbers has allegedly been linked

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Speaker 1: to taxpayer funds, so people working in electorate offices on

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Speaker 1: taxpayer money, working on getting numbers so that certain candidates

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Speaker 1: can get up based on votes. So, ultimately we've seen

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Speaker 1: a couple of Victorian Labor ministers have to resign based

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Speaker 1: on these branch stacking allegations. We've seen Adam Soomyiak, who

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Speaker 1: was the key figure in this initial investigation, he resigned

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Speaker 1: from the Labor Party altogether, and then there were two

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Speaker 1: other ministers who just resigned from the cabinet but still

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Speaker 1: sit within the party. That's where Luke de Llanelan will

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Speaker 1: sit on the backbench as a result of resigning from

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Speaker 1: the Andrews cabinet. And again he hasn't resigned because he's

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Speaker 1: implicated in any criminal proceedings. It's the fact that he

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Speaker 1: has basically owned up to branch stacking, which goes against

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Speaker 1: the Labour Party's own internal rules.

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Speaker 2: Does branch stacking happen on the federal level, as this

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Speaker 2: seem to be more state driven.

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Speaker 1: It definitely does happen at a federal level. Firstly, Anthony Byrne,

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Speaker 1: who I mentioned earlier had admitted to branch stacking, is

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Speaker 1: a federal member of the Labour Party. Federal and state

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Speaker 1: Labor parties are inextricably linked, so he is linked there.

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Speaker 1: But also, as I said on the other side of politics,

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Speaker 1: over eighteen years ago, Malcolm Turnbull, the former Prime Minister,

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Speaker 1: was up defending himself against allegations of branch stacking in

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Speaker 1: the seat of Wentworth. So it's again not specific to

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Speaker 1: one party, nor is it specific to one jurisdiction. The

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Speaker 1: only difference here is that there is of course no

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Speaker 1: Federal Integrity Commission, which means that it is more difficult

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Speaker 1: to root out allegations of corruptions at a federal level.

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Speaker 2: To me, ultimately, this discussion is about trying to expose

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Speaker 2: some of the behind closed door political techniques that Australian

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Speaker 2: politics is characterized, which in turn makes Australian politics more

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Speaker 2: accessible to you and I. That's part of our mission

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Speaker 2: at the Daily OS and if you want to follow

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Speaker 2: Daily OS. It's where over a quarter of a million

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Speaker 2: Australians get then used throughout the week and We've put

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Speaker 2: up some really awesome content in the last twenty four

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Speaker 2: hours for you to have a look at. Have a

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Speaker 2: sensational hump Day,