Vic rorts-for-votes inquiry stalemate ends
After weeks of deadlock, Victoria's powerful upper house privileges committee finally has a chair for its closed-doors inquiry into Labor's $388,000 rorts-for-votes scandal.
The committee will examine 21 past and present Labor MPs named in Ombudsman Deborah Glass' March report into the systematic misuse of public funds.
The committee had been in stalemate on who should head the inquiry because Labor and the Greens backed Greens MP Nina Springle but the opposition and some crossbench MPs wants Liberal MP Gordon Rich-Phillips.
Independent MP James Purcell was instead appointed to chair the upper house privileges committee on Wednesday afternoon.
Ms Glass found Labor MPs systematically misused parliamentary allowances to partially fund the party's winning 2014 election campaign.
She found the MPs breached parliamentary guidelines by authorising electoral officer time sheets when the staff were instead working on campaigns in other seats.
However, she also found that MPs who participated believed it was within the rules and Labor has repaid the money.
