- Full transcripts of the police crisis tapes will be released here shortly
THE secret tapes that expose confidential dealings and payouts behind the police command crisis will be referred to the Government's new anti-corruption body.
Premier Ted Baillieu said he would write to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and ask it to assess the four hours of taped material revealed by the Herald Sun.
But the premier has refused to sack his chief of staff, Tony Nutt, who was heard on the tapes criticising the Office of Police Integrity and offering to help former government adviser Tristan Weston a job.
Mr Weston – who quit in the wake of an OPI report into the split between top cops Simon Overland and Sir Ken Jones – was also paid $22,500 by the Liberal Party in a deal signed off by director of the Liberal Party’s Victorian division, Damien Mantach.
"I think there are matters of public importance here, and I am writing today to the IBAC commissioner to provide him with the information that appears in the Herald Sun today, in regard to Mr Nutt, Mr Mantach and Mr Weston, so that he can consider whether there is a need to assess this information,'' Mr Baillieu said.
"These conversations I was unware of in detail, other than being aware that Mr Nutt in his role had had conversations with Mr Weston.''
Mr Baillieu said he was unaware of extra payments made to Weston after he resigned.
Premier Ted Baillieu's chief of staff Tony Nutt is seen through a window in the Premier's offices at One Treasury Place last night. Picture: Brownbill Andrew
“Tristan Weston in his time, he worked briefly in Peter Ryan’s office, we honoured his employment contract in terms of the leave arrangements and I think we had good reason to honour it in the way we did,” Mr Baillieu said.
“We believed that it was important that we honour the terms of his employment contract, to the point when he resigned, and he had obviously been under considerable pressure.”
Asked why he was referring the matter to IBAC, Mr Baillieu said it was a matter of public interest.
"I haven't listened to the tapes and I haven't read all the transcripts,'' he said.
"The point of providing this information to the IBAC Commissioner is to allow him to make that assessment as to whether there's any need for any further consideration.''
Mr Baillieu said Mr Nutt's "choice of words could have been better'' but refused to criticise his right-hand man's actions.
"I'm not going to commence judging these things,'' he said.
"I have great confidence in Tony Nutt.''
The premier stood by his claims on 3AW in July last year when he was questioned about a staff member trying to help Mr Weston a job.
"I said I was unaware of it, and I stand by the answer I gave at that time,'' he said.
It comes as Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews calls on the Premier to decide whether to back his Deputy Peter Ryan or his most senior advisor Tony Nutt.
"I think this casts Peter Ryan in an appalling light, not even the Premier's Chief of Staff believes Peter Ryan when he said he knew nothing, and that Tristan Weston was a rogue,” Mr Andrews said.
"These are very serious issues and the Premier needs to account for each and every one of them.”
Former OPI director Michael Strong this morning defended the integrity of his reign and labelled allegations against the OPI as "outrageous" after accusations in the tapes that the body acted like the Stasi.
The tapes also reveal that Mr Weston was repeatedly offered help in finding a new job by the Premier's most senior adviser, Tony Nutt - actions at odds with Mr Baillieu's public assurances that his office was not assisting the former adviser.
"I mean, I know Gina Rinehart," Mr Nutt told Mr Weston in a phone conversation on July 10, 2012.
A source has provided the Herald Sun with digital recordings of three phone conversations and two meetings involving Mr Weston, Mr Nutt, and the Victorian director of the Liberal Party, Damien Mantach.
The Herald Sun played no role in recording the conversations.
In them, Mr Nutt told Mr Weston "there's lots of people we collectively know ... Damien knows, I know and Ted knows. You shouldn't feel that the Liberal family is suddenly going to ... wave you and your family goodbye."
In one tape, when Mr Nutt tells Mr Weston he must resign, Mr Nutt says: "I appreciate that there may be more there ... but he's the Deputy Premier in a one-seat majority government."
Mr Weston yesterday stood by his version of events: "I was always taught that if you can't say something nice about someone, you should say nothing at all."
Mr Ryan's spokesman Paul Price said: "The OPI exhaustively investigated these issues and published findings adverse to Mr Weston. Mr Ryan stands by all comments made in all forums regarding these issues."
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This morning Mr Strong said he and his staff acted with integrity when he headed the OPI.
“I have no problem with anyone investigating what happened at the OPI. I have nothing to hide. I believe me and my staff acted with complete integrity so if anyone wants to explore that they’re very welcome too,” he told ABC radio.
“I’ve made no media comment since I resigned. But there are a couple of things that have been said that I really can’t let go through to the keeper, Mr Nutt, who is the Premier’s chief of staff, the most senior man or woman in the Premier’s office…appears to be alleging that the OPI under my leadership was corrupt and that it fitted people up.
“What that means is allegedly we made allegations and findings against people knowing those allegations and findings were false…that’s what fitting people us means.
“That I assume is the basis of the allegation that the OPI under my leadership was corrupt…now that is all outrageous.”
TED Baillieu's top adviser repeatedly promised a former adviser to Police Minister Peter Ryan he would help him get a new job - revelations at odds with the Premier's assurances.
In a phone conversation recorded on July 10, Mr Baillieu's chief of staff, Tony Nutt, even told Tristan Weston he knew Gina Rinehart, indicating he'd approach her to give him work.
Mr Weston said he was interested in doing security assessment work in the mining industry, and Mr Nutt said he was happy to oblige.
"There's a lot of ... people ... I know in the mining industry ... I'm a Perth boy originally, you know. I mean, I know Gina Rinehart," Mr Nutt said in the call.
"I've met a lot them, and the ones I don't know, I know the bloke who knows the bloke who set up the company 30 years ago, or something. So you know, I know a lot of those people."
The call to Mr Weston came a day after Mr Weston told Liberal Party state director Damien Mantach he was annoyed at Mr Ryan's comments about him: "I think, you know, Peter Ryan tends to run off at the mouth, and it would be in his best interests not to, mate."
The offer of job assistance was in addition to $22,500 paid to Mr Weston on the say-so of Mr Mantach, who in one recording can be heard reminding him: "I am the person who stepped in and put you on a payroll for three months ... And you know, I didn't have to do that, and I did."
Mr Nutt's offer, and other promises of assistance, were made both before and after October, 2011, when Mr Weston resigned following the OPI's accusation he had run a campaign against police chief Simon Overland.
Last July, broadcaster Neil Mitchell put it to Mr Baillieu that Mr Weston had "taken a fall" and that Deputy Premier Peter Ryan was "up to his neck in it and to help square things off your people are trying to get him a job".
Mr Baillieu replied: "I don't believe that's the case", and "I just don't think there's any credibility to that scenario".
The Premier's chief of staff Tony Nutt, and former police adviser Trent Weston. Source: Herald Sun
The recordings reveal Mr Nutt's first promise to Mr Weston was made even before the OPI had tabled its report on crisis in police command.
A week before the OPI report became public, in October, 2011, Mr Nutt met Mr Weston and Mr Mantach at the Liberal Party's headquarters in Exhibition St.
None of them knew whether the OPI's report would clear Mr Weston of misconduct, criticise him, or recommend he be charged.
But Mr Nutt was keen to reassure Mr Weston that whatever the report found, the Premier and the Liberal Party would not forget him.
"(There's) lots of people that we collectively all know - Damien knows and I know and Ted knows and lots of people know, um - in the wider world.
''So if that's where we wind up in a month or two, with you looking to the wider world, then I think that you shouldn't feel that the Liberal family is suddenly sort of going to say, 'Thank you very much' and wave you and your family goodbye.
"You know, that's not the way we work," he said.
At the same meeting, the two men discussed with Mr Weston how he could avoid the media in the days after the report was released.
Mr Mantach said the party could find Mr Weston and his family accommodation at short notice.
"We can quickly find a cottage or a house or, you know, another sort of accommodation you need. You know, down the west somewhere I think would be good, where you're right out of the Melbourne CBD," he said.
"You know, in a quiet town somewhere, whether it's Queenscliff or Point Lonsdale, or further down at Anglesea or Apollo Bay or somewhere, that's - you've got to go away, mate. I mean, the last thing we want is media turning up at school, and on this sort of issue."
The day before the report was tabled, the three men met again.
At this meeting, Mr Nutt told Mr Weston he had read the report - "they've really gone after you" - and it would be impossible for Mr Weston to keep working for the Government, especially as the OPI was signalling it might still charge him.
But after helping Mr Weston to draft his resignation letter, Mr Nutt made it clear he was prepared to help Mr Weston find work in the mining industry, once the controversy had died down.
"I would be in a position to say to people directly, well, look, you know, there's been unpleasantness, pretty political, but, you know, if you're looking for a good quality person, here's a good quality person," he said.
In July, 2012, a week after the OPI said it would not charge Mr Weston, Mr Nutt rang him to discuss what help he could be.
"So given that that's now clear, and given there's no question of any legal proceedings against you, then I think it would be good to sort of ramp up the assistance," he said.
"You know, happy to assist. But obviously I don't want to go blundering around the place if you've got something lined up, subject to clearance.
''But if ... it's something we can do to help, we'd be keen to do that now that we're not in this awful environment of ... can the Premier's office say something to someone, and then he's charged a week later?"
-with Michell Ainsworth
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