Operation Richmond reveals a backroom culture IBAC can’t touch

August 8, 2026 — 5:00am

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“You can let Daniel know that we will be there for the long haul, including being there for him and your team at the next state election.”

These words, texted by United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall to then special minister of state Gavin Jennings a decade ago, seem innocuous. A leader of the union movement supports the incumbent Labor government – so what?

That’s certainly how former premier Daniel Andrews and Marshall – who is still running the UFU after 25 years in the job – would like you to react: shrug and move on.

What the much-delayed Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) report on Operation Richmond shows is that the text message was the receipt for a grubby and secretive transaction. What made it grubby wasn’t cash under the desk or freebies or (as was initially suspected) blackmail of a premier; it was the way political power was put before public accountability.

A decade ago, The Age’s industrial relations reporters Ben Schneiders and Royce Millar wrote that Marshall “threatens Labor people with destruction of their political ambitions or governments. And he means it. Some know it, too.”

Operation Richmond shows where the rot started

Chip Le GrandState political editor

State political editor

IBAC’s report shows us exactly where that knowledge led Labor ministers and the public servants supposed to offer them impartial advice. Time and again, obstacles........

© The Age