The Supreme Court rejected his offer and ordered him to pay the party’s legal expenses, which according to sources were more than $ 200,000. Kairouz, who did not respond to The Age’s repeated inquiries, has asked to pay a lower amount and the parties are in negotiations, which is common in litigation over legal costs. The Andrews office, which wants to avoid by-elections, has been aware of these discussions, which were active until Wednesday.
Kairouz, who was forced to leave the ministry after The Age reported an alleged branch-stacking operation overseen by his ally Adem Somyurek, has recently sold a house and has a new job in line.
Nineteen Labor MPs, a quarter of all MPs, have resigned or been ousted from parliament during this term of government. Twelve ministers have left the cabinet since the 2018 elections.
Kairouz would be entitled to a higher exit payment if he acted until the state elections. Deputies are entitled to nearly $ 95,000 if they have served two terms, such as Kairouz, and have run in the election. The payment is linked to how much the deadline is met, so it would decrease as before he resigned.
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Although the Victorian Electoral Commission does not publish the cost of individual state by-elections, the last federal by-election in Victoria, at Batman’s headquarters, cost $ 2,177,482.
The Liberal Party has no candidate for Kororoit yet, but opposition leader Matthew Guy believes his party’s best chance of securing Labor seats will be in traditional Labor strongholds in the outer suburbs.
Labor’s replacement in Kororoit is former railway union leader Luba Grigorovitch.
A government spokeswoman said both the Kairouz march and the legal cost negotiations were a matter for the Victorian branch of the Labor Party.