Premier stands by dog chauffeuring minister

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is standing by his Corrections Minister despite a second error of judgement being revealed, after it emerged he had not declared his house.

A day after Mr Herbert apologised for using a driver to chauffeur his pets around Victoria, he was forced to admit he had not listed his Trentham house on the Parliamentary register of interests.

Mr Herbert said that his family home is a modest one.

“As soon as I realised it was not on the declaration I changed that,” Mr Herbert said.

“In terms of the dogs, I made a mistake, as I said.

“There was no personal gain whatsoever in any of the issues that have been raised.”

Yesterday, the minister apologised after it was revealed the taxpayer-funded car was used to ferry his two dogs, Patch and Ted to his Trentham house.

But he said he will not be standing down and Mr Andrews does not expect him to either.

“He’s made it very clear that he’s stuffed up, that’s the appropriate thing to acknowledge,” Mr Andrews said.

“He’s done the right thing, he’s admitted he had an error of judgement, that he made a mistake.

“He needs to do better and I’m confident that he will. He understands fully what my expectations are, [what] the expectations of the community are.”

Mr Herbert has also been under fire for his spending, which included $400 on Christmas card, $160 on earphones and hundreds more on coffee supplies.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy is furious that the Premier is standing by Mr Herbert.

“Steve Herbert needs to decide whether he is the Minister for Corrections of the Minister for Bad judgement,” Mr Guy said.

“If you can’t even declare your own house, if you take dogs around in the back of a government limousine, you’re probably forfeiting your right to be a Government Minister of Victoria.”

Mr Guy said the Opposition is considering referring the matter to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee.

“He couldn’t even announce how many times he put the dogs in the back of the car … my understanding is that its been a regular activity every sitting week.

“If you add that up over the last two years of him being a minister its at least 30 odd times.

“That’s a lot of fuel, that’s a lot of wear and tear, that’s a lot of time for drivers.”