A Victorian MP has used parliamentary privilege to appoint a former rival politician he claims is Australia’s unknown ‘traitor’ allegedly unearthed by ASIO.
In Victoria’s House of Lords, Victorian Labor’s former factional warlord but now independent, former MP Anthony Byrne, Adem Somyurek, was named as the “traitor” hinted at by spy chief Mike Burgess last week.
Mr Byrne, who did not contest his seat of Melbourne’s Holt at the last federal election, was also at the center of an investigation into Victorian Labor branch stacking targeting Mr Somyurek, which saw him quit Labor in 2022.
Victorian MP Adem Somyurek (pictured) has named former federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne as the likely spy referred to by ASIO
In naming Mr Byrne as the Chinese collaborator, Mr Somyurek admitted he had an “axe to grind” against his former faction ally turned arch enemy, but said the long-serving Victorian federal MP was “certainly on the right track here” requirements’ to be the spy.
Mr Somyurek claimed Mr Byrne was “cash tight” when he served on parliament’s Joint Intelligence and Security Committee each year, either as chairman or deputy chairman, depending on whether Labor was in government.
Mr Somyurek claimed he had the ‘receipts’ of leaks orchestrated by Mr Brynes, which he was prepared to give to ASIO to assist in their investigation.
Mr Byrne was forced to resign from the Intelligence and Security Committee after admitting illegal business practices during an investigation by Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission in 2021.
Australian intelligence services have denied that Byrne is the ‘traitor’.
During his testimony, Mr Bryne admitted that he had paid other people’s Labor Party membership fees since he first became an MP in 1999, sometimes spending as much as $2,000 of his own money in a single year to keep his voting bloc intact. to hold.
Mr Byrne also gave IBAC access to video recordings made at his federal electorate office in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs in late 2019 and early 2020, implicating Mr Somyurek in similar practices.
Mr Byrne (pictured) was a long-term federal Labor MP and a prominent member of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee
The footage showed Mr Somyurek engaging in branch stacking and other inappropriate behaviour, including ordering taxpayer-funded electorates and ministerial staff to engage in party political activities during official working hours.
Labor sources afterwards described the covert recordings as a “factional hit” that toppled Center Unity powerbroker Somyurek and ultimately favored Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, the leader of the Socialist Left faction.
What followed was a purge of Victorian Labor MPs linked to Somyurk’s faction, as pre-selection battles eliminated Frank McGuire, Marlene Kairouz and Luke Donnellan, who was also involved in the IBAC investigation.
Since mr Burgess claimed an ex-politician had become entangled in a spy ring, but he remained tight-lipped about the identity.
The director-general revealed further details to SBS on Sunday, saying the politician was serving as an MP at the time, but would not clarify whether they were part of state, territory or federal parliament.
“I can understand the view that it is in the public interest (to name the person), but I don’t agree with that,” Burgess said.
This has not satisfied those demanding that he or anyone else in the know reveal the identity of the former politician.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has urged Home Secretary Clare O’Neil to ‘use parliamentary privilege’ to pass on the information.
ASIO boss Mike Burgess has defended not naming the MP, saying he was a spy as it could reveal the agency’s methods
Mr Burgess said he was publicly casting light on the former politician to highlight awareness of the real threat of spies, and said it was not the first time there had been political interference.
“It’s important though that if I shared the details of who it was, they could find out how I found out who it was or how my organization (did it) and that is my secret source and I have to protect it,” he said.
Burgess said exposing the former politician who betrayed the nation by helping a foreign spy ring would harm future intelligence gathering.