The use of pre-paid credit cards to sign up people to the Labor Party is being investigated as part of an internal inquiry into branch stacking in the Victorian ALP.
A three-person panel is investigating the allegations of branch stacking – where people pay for the membership of others to build an internal bloc of votes – in three federal seats including Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's seat of Maribyrnong. Branches in the federal seats of Lalor and Melbourne are also under investigation.
The panel is due to report to the next meeting of the party's administrative committee this month.
It is believed the allegations involve up to 60 new members and relate to matters in 2014.
After the party's 2014 state conference, people could join and pay for membership online for the first time, which led to a surge in membership and suspicious behaviour.
Party officials noticed irregular card payments and have been examining card and IP addresses. Pre-paid cards were identified as a method to sign members up online without being easily tracked.
Senior party sources say that like many instances of stacking, the allegations revolve around ethnic groups, including Somali and Indian blocs.
They also say the investigation may be extended to the federal seat of Calwell in Melbourne's northern suburbs.The inquiry into alleged stacking in Lalor has taken 11 months, which has angered some on the powerful administrative committee and resulted ina deadline on a report at this month administrative committee meeting.
Some people genuinely wanting to join are still waiting for their application to be signed off.
Branch stacking allows certain groups to bankroll the membership of others who often have an interest in the party. This way the interest groups can control a large bloc of votes for preselection and election to positions of influence.
Last weekend, there was a push from some corners of the party to crack down on branch stacking by introducing rules that would require all members to pay their annual fees by traceable means, such as a personal credit card.
But the motion was voted down.
Sources say the use of pre-purchased cards has now stopped but suspicious behaviour is continuing, with some people paying cash to others for them to sign up using their credit cards.
"It is important for this investigation to continue to try and stamp out branch stacking," a senior source said.
A spokesman for Mr Shorten said the action taken by the party was welcome.
"As Mr Shorten has said in the past, there is no place whatsoever in the Labor Party for this type of wrongdoing.," he said.
