Victoria’s top public servant has been asked to investigate the serious assault allegation made against state MP Will Fowles and publicly report the outcome.
The state opposition has written a letter to Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Jeremi Moule requesting he gets to the bottom of what happened after Mr Fowles was accused of a serious assault.
In the one-page letter obtained by AAP, the opposition’s upper house leader Georgie Crozier and manager of opposition business James Newbury said Victorian government employees must be safe at work.
“As head of Victoria’s public service, including employees in the Department of Premier and Cabinet, we request that you commence an investigation into this matter and that there be a public report,” they wrote.
The Victorian government referred the matter to police on Saturday, but the force is yet to receive a formal complaint from the unnamed alleged victim.
Mr. Fowles resigned from Victorian Labor’s parliamentary party but has since strenuously denied the allegation and vowed to fully cooperate with any process or inquiry.
He was a no-show at parliament on Wednesday for the inauguration of university sector leader and academic Margaret Gardner as the state’s 30th governor.
The Ringwood MP is expected to be absent from parliament on Thursday when the electoral matters committee begins examining last year’s state election.
As the committee’s chair, Mr. Fowles is set to pocket an extra $19,883 this financial year on top of his base MP salary of $198,839.
Premier Daniel Andrews has suggested Mr Fowles should resign from that position and shut the door on any possibility of him returning to Labor’s parliamentary ranks.
In 2019, Mr. Fowles kicked through the lower half of a door at the Abode Hotel in Canberra during an argument with staff about his luggage.
At the time, Mr. Fowles said his actions were driven by anxiety because he wasn’t able to access luggage containing his medication.
He took a leave of absence for three months to deal with mental health issues before returning to parliament.
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