{"id":844353,"date":"2026-08-05T11:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844353\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T11:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T11:44:18","slug":"operation-richmond-showed-how-government-decision-making-has-been-corrupted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844353\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Richmond showed how government decision-making has been corrupted"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 5, 2026 \u2014 7:05pm<\/p>\n

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\u201cHandshake has occurred \u2013 it\u2019s done.\u201d So wrote Gavin Jennings, at the time Daniel Andrews\u2019 most trusted ministerial colleague, after four days of secret talks in an undisclosed location secured an in-principle agreement to placate an odious union boss.<\/p>\n

It was April 12, 2016, and the Andrews government was 1\u00bd years into what would become a nine-year rule of extraordinary consequence. One of its most pressing headaches was how to stop United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall from \u201craining hellfire down on the government\u201d if he didn\u2019t get what he wanted out of wage negotiations with the Country Fire Authority<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"OperationOperation Richmond probed negotiations between the Andrews government and the United Firefighters Union.Marija Ercegovac<\/p>\n

In that moment, as Marshall, some of his UFU comrades and an unidentified Labor senator popped the cork on a bottle of sparkling white to celebrate, Jennings thought he had completed what he called his \u201csecret mission\u201d on behalf of a premier desperate to avoid an ugly industrial war with the same firefighters who\u2019d campaigned for them at the 2014 election.<\/p>\n

This was also Marshall\u2019s view, IBAC heard, as his subsequent comment to a government adviser made clear: \u201cThis agreement was negotiated with f—in\u2019 Jennings in a back room. It was endorsed by f—in\u2019 Andrews and cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in that moment, Andrews sidelined the minister nominally responsible for the CFA and other emergency services, undercutting the ability of the CFA management to hold a strong line in negotiations, compromising a senior public servant by deploying him as a political operative and diminishing his own capacity to stand up to Marshall and other union bosses in future disputes.<\/p>\n

The final report of Operation Richmond tabled in parliament on Wednesday serves as the origin story for all that became wrong within the Andrews government.<\/p>\n

The IBAC investigation into this murky episode, Operation Richmond<\/a>, does not contain findings of corruption against Andrews or anyone else. As successive IBAC commissioners have remarked and the government now accepts through its promise of reform, the narrow definition of corruption with which IBAC has worked since its inception, limits the scope of its investigations<\/a> and capacity to make adverse findings.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"United<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, the final report of Operation Richmond tabled in parliament on Wednesday serves as the origin story for all that became wrong within the Andrews government. Although it is the last to be published of four IBAC reports for which the former premier was privately examined by the anti-corruption agency, it was chronologically, the first scandal investigated by IBAC.<\/p>\n

This is where the rot started.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Ben<\/a><\/p>\n

Its theme and the concerns expressed within its pages about the conduct of ministers, MPs and public servants, overlap with what IBAC found in Operation Watts, an investigation into branch stacking<\/a> overseen by former factional chief Adem Somyurek, and particularly, the Operation Daintree report, which delved into government money spent on a dubious training program<\/a> to appease another union boss.<\/p>\n

Richmond also dovetails with concerns raised by Ombudsman Deborah Glass<\/a> when she looked at the politicisation of the Victorian public service and as a case study, the secretive and unorthodox development of plans to build the Suburban Rail Loop, a project now sitting like an anvil on the chest of the state\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

In future years, if anyone wants to understand why former CFMEU boss John Setka was allowed to establish an industrial monopoly over the Big Build<\/a>, how crucial decisions about a hotel quarantine program designed to stop a deadly virus could be made without the knowledge of any ministers responsible or how Andrews was able to rule unconstrained by the normal checks and balances of government, they should start with Richmond.<\/p>\n

At its simplest, Richmond is what happens when a government decides that furthering its own political interests is more important than safeguarding the public interest. The lesson here is less for Andrews, who is long gone from public life, than for today\u2019s premier Ben Carroll and whoever is in government after the November election.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew premier Ben Carroll has pledged to increase IBAC\u2019s remit. He will have his work cut out for him. Eddie Jim<\/p>\n

\u201cOperation Richmond highlights how government leaders, including ministers and the premier, can undermine established checks and balances when they fail to model high integrity standards and act as stewards of good governance,\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n

Related\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe matters investigated in Operation Richmond may have occurred some time ago, but the corruption risks and vulnerabilities highlighted \u2013 improper influence, failures in ministerial conduct, failures by senior public servants to act impartially and the politicisation of appointment processes for public sector boards \u2013 are serious and persist in Victoria\u2019s public sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s unpack these observations with what we now know from the report about the secret meeting in April 2016 where, acting on Andrews instructions, Jennings and senior public servant Tony Bates met with Marshall and conducted a shadow enterprise agreement negotiation with the UFU boss. According to Andrews\u2019 evidence to IBAC, his instructions to Jennings were succinct: \u201cYou need to fix this. This needs to be fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"United<\/a><\/p>\n

By this stage, Andrews had lost confidence in Jane Garrett, the minister for emergency services who had previously dealt with Marshall, to reach agreement on an EBA and avoid a damaging industrial dispute. Garrett, who died in July 2022 after she announced her retirement from parliament, told IBAC in 2019 what it was like dealing with Marshall, the UFU state secretary since 1995.<\/p>\n

She described him as relentless, abusive and threatening.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Marshall is notoriously difficult to deal with and has been for many years,\u201d she said. \u201cHe has a very violent temper and is known for not coping very well if things don\u2019t go his way.\u201d She said that some of her staff were \u201ctraumatised\u201d by having to deal with him.<\/p>\n

On this, Garrett, would have gotten no argument from Jennings. In May 2016, Jennings sent Andrews a text encapsulating the mood swings of the union boss through the course of a Fair Work Commission mediation. \u201cAt 11am he was convinced you were a treacherous c— and I was a f—ing idiot \u2026 By lunchtime, he was giving me the benefit of the doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Operation<\/a><\/p>\n

In another text to a government adviser, he described Marshall as \u201ca violin string about to break\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jennings, like Andrews, believed Garrett\u2019s relationship with Marshall had become dysfunctional. He could also see, through near daily reporting in The Herald Sun newspaper, that a campaign was being run against the government from within. He told IBAC that some people were operating with \u201cmischievous intent\u201d and had no interest in resolving the dispute with the UFU. Suspicion would have naturally fallen on Garrett.<\/p>\n

Given these circumstances, it was not unreasonable for Andrews to seek other means of reaching agreement with Marshall. But, by keeping Jennings\u2019 \u201csecret mission\u201d and his handshake agreement with Marshall concealed from Garrett, senior public servants nominally involved in EBA negotiations and the Fair Work Commission which serves as the nation\u2019s industrial umpire, Andrews weakened the negotiating position of his own government and emboldened Marshall\u2019s brinkmanship.<\/p>\n

Bates bit his tongue when, the day after Jennings sent his handshake text, Andrews and Marshall conducted what IBAC calls a \u201cstaged\u201d meeting in the premier\u2019s office, in front on an unwitting staff member, to continue the ruse that an agreement had not yet been reached.<\/p>\n

\" Photo: Matt Golding<\/p>\n

Bates was not the only public servant who found themselves compromised. IBAC recounted how Craig Lapsley, an experienced and respected firefighting chief in Victoria and NSW then serving as the state\u2019s inaugural emergency management commissioner, wrote to Garrett raising concerns that the UFU\u2019s demands, which gave the UFU a broad veto over CFA management decisions, would reduce operational efficiency and potentially, public safety.<\/p>\n

Two days later, after he was told by a senior bureaucrat that Eccles wanted the letter withdrawn, he issued a fresh letter recanting his concerns. Eccles told IBAC he had no knowledge of Lapsley\u2019s sudden change of heart.<\/p>\n

The pattern that emerges in Richmond, one repeated throughout the life of the Andrews government, is how Andrews\u2019 centralised decision-making at the expense of ministerial responsibility, silenced dissenting voices, blurred the distinction between public servants and political operatives, stacked public sector boards and ran his government with unabashed deceit.<\/p>\n

Andrews emphasised in a statement released on Wednesday that the original allegation that launched Operation Richmond \u2013 that Marshall blackmailed or otherwise compromised him to get a more favourable wage deal for his union members \u2013 was unsubstantiated and false.<\/p>\n

Andrews is entirely right on this score but seemingly, blind to the serious problems IBAC did find in this investigation and others into his government. Andrews was not corrupt, but under his nine years in power, government decision-making in Victoria badly lost its way. This is part of his legacy. Operation Richmond shows where it started.<\/p>\n

Read more on Operation Richmond:<\/p>\n

Secret missions and staged meetings: How a backroom deal<\/a> led to the IBAC probe.<\/p>\n

How we got here: 5 things to know about Operation Richmond<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"ChipChip Le Grand<\/a> leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper\u2019s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years\u2019 experience.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 5, 2026 \u2014 7:05pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-844353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}