Newly promoted Victorian government minister Luba Grigorovitch says she will never write another character reference after revealing she regrets six she has penned, including one for a taxi driver convicted of assaulting female passengers.
Grigorovitch issued a statement on Monday night confirming that, since she became the member for Koroit in late 2022, she had provided “around 33” character references, including six “to individuals that I now know I shouldn’t have”.
“At the time I provided these references, I was not aware of their history. I will no longer provide character references and I apologise for any offence I have caused.”
This included two separate character references for constituents who had fought federal government decisions to revoke their visas for failing the character test.
The Herald Sun last week reported Grigorovitch provided a character reference to Muhammad Isa, a former taxi driver who indecently assaulted female passengers in 2013.
According to a transcript of the administrative review tribunal decision, seen by Guardian Australia, Grigorovitch had written she had known Isa for “several years” and could “confidently attest to his character, integrity, and contribution to the Australian community”.
However, the ART’s May decision noted Isa had conceded Grigorovitch was “unaware of his past offending” when she had written the reference. They rejected his appeal, due to “serious past crimes, implausible current narrative, and continuing lack of insight and acceptance of responsibility”.
The Australian Financial Review reported she had written another for a 38-year-old Pakistani citizen, pseudonym CYNW, in 2024 after he challenged the immigration minister’s decision to refuse him a partner visa on the grounds of his past domestic violence offending against a former partner. This has been independently verified by Guardian Australia.
Speaking outside parliament on Tuesday, Grigorovitch confirmed the reports but refused to provide the details of the remaining four character references she said she regretted as they involved “private individuals”.
“Since 2022, I have provided a number of character references. During this time, I provided them to community members who were looking to rebuild their lives, who were looking for jobs, looking for housing, etc,” she told reporters.
“I realise that this was a mistake. I’ve now acted on this mistake. I’m sorry and it won’t happen again.”
Grigorovitch said she knew each of the people she provided characters to because they were “volunteers within the community”.
She said she was not aware of them being union-affiliated, though they “might be Labor members”, and conceded her office had no vetting process in place.
“My process is not good enough, and that is why I’ve come here today and I’ve apologised and said that I should not have provided a character reference,” she said. “Going forward, I will not be providing character references. Full stop.”
Grigorovitch, a former state secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, was elevated to the cabinet by the premier, Jacinta Allan, in April and given the portfolios of youth, carers and volunteers.
She immediately drew headlines after saying she had “no regrets” about her past friendship with former construction union leader John Setka, who she worked with closely at the RBTU. She also thanked Setka personally in her maiden speech in 2023 and he attended her wedding that same year.
The shadow attorney general, James Newbury, who in April criticised Grigorovitch’s elevation to cabinet due to her ties to Setka, said the revelations about the character references were further proof she was “not fit to be a minister”.
“If this government had any integrity, she would be sacked,” he said. “It has no integrity. So, I’m sure there should be a thriving part of that ministry up until election day.”
The Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, said she had only ever written one character reference during her 12 years as an MP, for someone she knows “personally”.
“It is a matter of common sense and good judgment that you should not be providing character references to people that you don’t know,” she said.
“That’s surely a matter of good judgment and, if you’ve got Labor MPs that can’t exercise that basic common sense, of good judgment, what are they doing there?”
While Grigorovitch said “a lot of MPs” gave character references, her fellow minister Harriet Shing told reporters she did not.
“What I can assure people of is that it’s never been my practice to provide character references,” Shing said. “It’s something that I take really seriously.”
Earlier this year, the Liberal party was also embroiled in its own character reference scandal, with political hopeful Dinesh Gourisetty winning a preselection vote but not formally endorsed after it emerged 24 hours later that he had written a character reference for a convicted sex offender.
The party reviewed its vetting processes as a result.
