A Victorian Labor MP at the centre of bullying claims has again lashed out publicly, this time at the national broadcaster, which she claims left out important aspects of her story following an exclusive interview with her.
Embattled MP Kaushaliya Vaghela spoke out publicly about alleged sustained and debilitating bullying of her by individuals within the Labor Party, claiming her complaints were ignored.
She said the alleged bullying had floored her self esteem and claimed she would not have joined parliament had she known what was to come.
Ms Vaghela this week demanded an apology from Premier Daniel Andrews in a story aired by the ABC’s 7.30 program.
But following the airing of the program on Thursday evening, Ms Vaghela criticised how her story had been handled.
“It disappoints me that only a fraction of what I endured was aired tonight,” she said in a statement.
“The most egregious aspects of the story were ignored, including the conduct of the Premier, his staff and his personal friend.
“The fact that my strong views on having my mental health questioned publicly by the Premier and his team for daring to complain were omitted raises serious concerns.”
The matter has been referred to WorkSafe.
The program detailed Vaghela’s move from the Party’s Socialist Left faction to the right, which she believes prompted the alleged bullying.
She told 7.30 that following the switch she had been victimised by Labor MP and Minister for Women Gabrielle Williams and alleged a staff member in the Premier’s office, along with three of his friends, harassed and bullied her at public events.
The program also included Ms Vaghela’s claims her husband had been assaulted.
“I have suffered a lot over three years, me and my family, we have suffered a lot and I want justice,” she said.
“I want the Premier to acknowledge what they have done to me and apologise to me.”
An ABC spokesperson said the program represented the MP fairly.
“(The) story concerning Kaushaliya Vaghela was a fair and thorough report on the allegations that met the bar for publication and included lengthy comments from Ms Vaghela,” the spokesperson said.
Ms Vaghela was first elected to parliament in 2018 to represent Melbourne’s outer west but was dumped from preselection for the 2021 election.
Earlier this month she broke party rules and crossed the floor to vote with former minister Adem Somyurek to refer Labor‘s red shirts scandal back to the Ombudsman.
At the time Ms Vaghela claimed branch stacking was “endemic” within Labor and that she felt compelled to speak out about corruption.
“I was a former staff member for the Socialist Left faction, so I know all about their branch stacking activities and their electorate officers being used for factional purposes,” she said in a statement.
“If branch stacking and factional operatives working in electorate officers (sic) is corrupt, then the Socialist Left and all the other factions must be investigated.”
The red shirts rort occurred during the 2014 election which saw the Labor Party use taxpayer funded electorate office staff for campaigning.
In 2018, the Labor Party was ordered to repay the $388,000 it used in the rort and no further action was recommended.
Amid the branch stacking scandal, Federal Labor's governing body launched an intervention into the Victorian branch, following claims that up to a quarter of Victoria’s 16,000 ALP members were affected by industrial scale branch stacking.
The issue has now become the subject of a long-running court battle, with an appeal to stop the takeover dismissed by the Victorian Court of Appeal on Friday.
The judges concluded the national executive acted within the power of the constitution of the party when it took over the Victorian branch.
It’s believed the matter may progress to the High Court.
