A former Noreen Hay staffer has admitted to signing the names of four people on electoral forms that falsely placed them in the Wollongong electorate, in the lead-up to a controversial pre-selection ballot tainted by claims of branch stacking.
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Giving evidence in Wollongong Local Court on Thursday, Susan Maree Greenhalgh said she believed she had permission to sign the electronically-lodged forms, and that the addresses she typed in were correct alterations.
Greenhalgh admits she never spoke to West Wollongong’s Cveta Davidovic, Corrimal’s Danica Vangelovski and a third witness who cannot be named, before lodging electoral forms on their behalf on November 6, 2014.
She said she believed the trio had given their permission to update their information and sign the forms via a middleman – Wollongong’s then-honorary ALP branch secretary Judita Matic, 69.
She claims the trio “weren’t available” to fill in the forms themselves and that Ms Matic, who has personal relationships with them, provided her with their details over the phone.
“They were offered the opportunity either directly or through someone else, like Judy Matic, to come in and get the forms done,” she said
“I did not believe that I would be doing anything wrong in helping them with their consent and permission.”
“I believed that I had [witness three’s] permission, because [Judita] told me she had spoken to him and sourced his permission.”
The trio have denied all knowledge of the forms, which list their addresses as that of Ms Matic, in Hillcrest Street Wollongong.
Greenhalgh said she signed the forms with “a squiggle” and countersigned in Ms Matic’s name, at her request.
“She said, ‘no, no, I can’t do computers, you do it for me’,” Greenhalgh said.
“And with her permission, I did.”
Greenhalgh told the court she updated nine people’s details that day, after cross-referencing Labor party records with the Australian Electoral Commission’s register of voters and identifying “discrepancies”.
Among the nine was Yusef Agdiran, whose address she changed from Fernhill, in the Keira electorate, to his address of five years ago, in Coniston.
Speaking via a Turkish interpreter, Mr Agdiran told the court on Wednesday he could not recall speaking to Greenhalgh the day the forms were lodged, as she claims.
Greenhalgh is accused of signing a fifth form on behalf of Wendy Lorraine Coleman, a British citizen with longstanding family ties to Lee Lawler, Ms Hay’s partner.
In evidence, Ms Coleman said she had given Greenhalgh permission to sign an enrolment form on her behalf.
Greenhalgh claims she obtained Mr Lawler’s permission over the phone before then countersigning the document in his name.
“He was happy, fine, no problem,” she said.
Australian Federal Police agent Grant Walter told the court both Ms Hay Mr Lawler had declined through their legal representative to speak to him during his investigation into the matter.
Greenhalgh told the court she was no longer a member of the Labor party.
The hearing continues on March 23, 2018.