Premier Jacinta Allan has failed a key test of her leadership by refusing to act on damning revelations that Labor MPs supported former CFMEU Secretary John Setka following his conviction for domestic violence offences.
In 2019, John Setka pled guilty to charges of harassing his then wife and breaching court orders, after he made more than 25 calls and sent 45 text messages which contained shocking verbal abuse.
Reports today have revealed Victorian Labor MPs Bronwyn Halfpenny and Luba Grigorovitch sent messages of support to John Setka during this period, including “just wanted to say thinking of you and hope everything will be ok” and “we will get through this John xx”.
Despite these damning revelations, Premier Allan has today failed to remove Ms Halfpenny from her position as Parliamentary Secretary for Jobs.
Furthermore, the Premier refused to condemn these displays of support by her own MPs for a convicted domestic violence perpetrator.
Shadow Minister for Women and Prevention of Family Violence, Cindy McLeish, said: “Today, Victorians have seen yet another failure of leadership by Jacinta Allan.
“By failing to act on this particularly serious matter, Premier Allan is protecting those who stand with domestic violence perpetrators and has exposed Labor’s utter hypocrisy.
“Victorians deserve better than a weak Premier. The actions of these Labor MPs are shameful and if Premier Allan was serious about changing attitudes to domestic violence she would have taken decisive action today.”
