What soccer club are you from, Justin?

Justin Madden is famous for his prowess as an AFL footballer. Ironic, isn't it? Now he's become infamous for his association with soccer clubs, the Cairnlea Soccer Club in partiular.

You know Cairnlea Soccer Club. It's the one that is a big feature of the Ombudsman's report. It's the one that Hakki Suleyman, Justin Madden's electorate officer, is associated with. The one Hakki's daughter gave all of that public money to. The one Justin Madden turned a blind eye to back in 2005, when Vogels raised it in parliament, and when a concerned resident wrote to him about it in 2005.

Now Justin and the rest of Victoria should know a little bit about the pain and suffering his inaction has caused a community in the western suburbs of Melbourne. The ramifications of Madden's inaction continue to this day.

Madden's failure to act certainly had an impact on the 2008 Brimbank City Council elections. The following comical, yet tragic, incident reflects the impact of Madden's inacation. This was observed by a number of people at the Sunvale polling booth on election day.

A flustered man came up to a group of campaign helpers who were handing out how-to-vote cards for Sam David (If you want to know more about Sam David you can read about him in the Ombudsman's report – he was affiliated with the Suleyman faction – and there's not a lot to like about this man). The flustered man asked, “What soccer club are you from?”

The campaign workers told the man that they were from Cairnlea Soccer Club, then asked why he wanted to know. The flustered man said, “ Well, Sam David told me to turn up at this other polling booth, but when I got there it was being manned by campaign workers from another soccer club. Now I don't know which polling booth I am supposed to be at.”

The funding that the Council provided to Cairnlea continues to have ramifications. Favours were called in for Brimbank Council election day. People associated with Cairnlea were only too happy to hand out for Sam David. Afterall, they now have a wonderful facility thanks to Madden's man Hakki and his daughter Natalie Suleyman.

In return for the facility at Cairnlea, Hakki became more powerful. He could rely on the soccer club to provide him with campaign workers for the Brimbank Council Election. He could also rely on the soccer club to provide him with a big pool of ALP members, who would come in handy for the ALP's pre-selections. Of course, those associated with the Cairnlea soccer club are extremely loyal to Hakki. Why wouldn't they be? Despite having a dreadful track record (including owing $14,000 to the Melton Council, which has not been repaid to this day), Hakki was able to swing it so that Brimbank City Council tipped in more than a million dollars to this club. The Cairnlea Soccer club loves Hakki Suleyman, and not because he was a public officer of the club, and his son was a committee member of the club. They should also love Justin Madden. Madden is intrinsically linked to Hakki. Madden gave Hakki credibility.

It's interesting, isn't it? When you think about it? Public money, given by Council, through Natalie Suleyman, and indirectly through Hakki Suleyman, has provided the ALP with a stronger power base. A soccer club full of election volunteers, full of ALP members, all willing to do Hakki's bidding come the ALP pre-selections. All that devotion to Hakki and it was bought with the public's own money. It's diabolical. And it was probably all planned out of Justin Madden's own office.