By FairfaxMedia
Tom Cowie/The Age
Former Melton councillor and four-time mayor Justin Mammarella allegedly planned a cover-up with three other Labor Party staffers to conceal the use of electorate office resources for a successful pre-selection campaign.
Mammarella, the former Labor candidate who quit a month before November’s state election, his father, Umberto Mammarella, Angela Scarpaci and Jeffrey O’Donnell appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court last Wednesday. They were charged by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission last year. Mammarella, 42, was preselected by Labor to contest the safe seat of Melton in the state election, but stood aside in October, citing family reasons.
Charge sheets show the group allegedly attempted to pervert the course of justice by agreeing to tell IBAC they had not used paid work hours, stationery and office equipment at the Cairnlea electorate office to aid
Mammarella’s pre-selection bid.
The four people are also alleged to have given false information that 713 stamped envelopes addressed to members of Labor’s Melton branch seized by investigators were intended for a mail-out to raise autism awareness for service provider Autism Plus.
Magistrate Duncan Reynolds heard that the prosecution would need extra time to compile the brief of evidence in order for material from listening devices to be transcribed.
Some members of the group are also alleged to have shared confidential information about their appearance before an IBAC examination and the evidence they intended to give.
The charges were handed down in December after an IBAC investigation into the alleged misuse of retired MP Khalil Eideh’s taxpayer-funded printing budget to pay for Labor Party memberships. Mr Eideh, the former Western Metropolitan MP, retired from politics at the November election after holding a seat for 12 years.
In September 2017, Mr Eideh’s office in Cairnlea closed and his staff placed on leave as news broke that IBAC would be asked to investigate the alleged rort. Mr Eideh stood down as deputy president of the upper house not long after the allegations emerged.
The matter will return to court for a committal mention on April 3.
– with Benjamin Preiss
