How the Premier’s local bottle shop owner claimed he won millions in projects - The Age

In late July 2018, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews invited his local bottle shop owner, Luckee Kohli, into his Treasury Place office to discuss the needs of Victoria’s Indian-Australian community.

Mr Kohli is an electronics engineer by training who sells fine whisky from Mr Andrews’ local bottle shop, Mulgrave Cellars. He claims he brought along to the meeting a number of other members of his community under the banner of the “Australia India Strategy Group”.

Danial Andrews and Luckee Kohli on the campaign trail in 2018.

A few weeks later, Mr Andrews announced Labor would, if re-elected in November 2018, spend tens of millions of dollars on initiatives which were claimed to be proposed by the group.

Among the projects announced by Andrews was a $14.5 million government grant to buy land to build aged care homes for elderly Indian-Australians in Melbourne’s west and south-east; $3 million for Indian filmmakers; $7 million for language programs and a big sum for festivals.

It was an impressive outcome for a lobby group that apparently did not officially exist at the time of the meeting. There is no direct evidence that the Treasury Place meeting and the funding commitments were linked, but the Australia India Strategy Group was quick to claim credit.

It released a video on its Facebook page thanking Mr Andrews for “supporting the Indian community and trusting AISG to make this happen”. While it is normal for political parties to promise funding to the multicultural community, it is unusual for one lobby group to have so many of its proposals supported in such a short time, as is claimed to be the case here.

A screenshot from a video posted by the Australia India Strategy Group on Facebook. Credit:Facebook

All of this helped to solidify a perception in sections of the Indian-Australian community that Mr Kohli was a man whose political access and influence went to the top.

But according to Labor MP Kaushaliya Vaghela, who has changed factions and been disendorsed by the party, Mr Kohli is both a “close personal friend” of Mr Andrews and, as claimed by Ms Vaghela in Parliament, was one of the “ringleaders” of a group of Labor-affiliated men who had bullied and harassed her in recent years. Mr Kholi denies the bullying allegations.

With a state election seven months away and Victoria home to 170,000 people born in India – more than any other state in Australia – both sides of politics are competing hard to win the community’s support in electorates such as Tarneit and Werribee in Melbourne’s west, and Dandenong and Cranbourne in the south-east.

For Labor at least, Mr Kohli has emerged as one of the key conduits to that community.

The Australia India Strategy Group

Australian Securities and Investments Commission records show that on August 6, 2018, a week after the Treasury Place meeting, the Australia India Strategy Group was registered as a business name for the first time. A month later, it became an unlisted public company. From its inception, it has had Mr Kohli and his wife, Sanjoo, as directors.

One observer from the Indian community who asked not to be named because he feared his business interests would be harmed if he was seen to criticiseMr Kohli, said he had been active with both sides of politics in the early 2010s, but it was not until he formed the group in 2018, a few months before the state election, that Mr Kohli’s “star” really rose.

On its website, the group calls together “various organisations and community groups” to “present … our needs, issues and concerns” within the community “as well as with the state government”. It also claims to be “non-political and hierarchy free”. But two attendees at the meetings with Mr Andrews conceded all invitees were first approved by Mr Kohli.

Of all the ideas which it is claimed the group presented to Mr Andrews, the proposal to secure land in Melbourne’s west and south-east on which aged care homes dedicated to the needs of elderly Indians are to be built appears to be the one it is most proud of. In a Facebook post, Mr Kohli’s group said it would be entrusted with implementing the $14.5 million grant to deliver the land for aged care facilities.

Luckee Kohli thanks Daniel Andrews in a Facebook post for announcing $14.5 million to build two aged care facilities. Credit:Facebook

In January this year, Mr Andrews announced that a site in Cranbourne East had been selected to build an aged care facility dedicated to elderly Indians. It is not known what role, if any, Mr Kohli’s group played in identifying or purchasing the land.

A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews said all funding proposals made by the Australia India Strategy Group were considered on their merits.

Fundraising and photographs

Local Indian media outlets and social media platforms regularly feature photographs of the smartly-dressed and socially active 55-year-old Mr Kohli side by side with the Premier at events, including one at Mr Kohli’s home in January 2020 where $200,000 was raised to support bushfire victims.

“It has become like all roads to the Premier must go through Luckee Kohli,” said one prominent member of Melbourne’s Indian-Australian community. “To get invited to an event with Dan Andrews or another senior minister, you have to be in with Luckee. This has boosted Luckee’s profile within our community massively.”

Daniel Andrews and his wife Cath with Luckee Kohli (left) at Parliament House in 2018.

Mr Kohli was first photographed in the Premier’s orbit eight years ago, at a fundraising dinner for the Labor leader ahead of his 2014 election victory over then Liberal premier Denis Napthine. But in the lead-up to the 2018 election, the pair were photographed together on Labor’s election campaign trail and celebrating Diwali in November that year.

Mr Kohli was among the few in Parliament’s Legislative Council public gallery to witness the swearing in of Mr Andrews’ new government in December that year. He was with the Premier again soon after enjoying the cricket at the Boxing Day test.

Throughout 2019, Mr Andrews continued to attend Australia India Strategy Group meetings. At one, Mr Andrews and Mr Kohli were photographed with controversial real estate agent Manpreet Dandiwal who was also present at the initial meeting between the group and the Premier.

Daniel Andrews and Luckee Kohli at Wyndham Holi Festival.

Mr Dandiwal is facing serious assault charges in relation to a brawl in a suburban park in September and is being investigated by Consumer Affairs Victoria following recent reports by The Age about his alleged conduct as a real estate agent. The Age is not suggesting that Mr Andrews or Mr Kohli have been involved in any wrongdoing in relation to the allegations against Mr Dandiwal.

A Melbourne magistrate this week approved a change in Mr Dandiwal’s bail conditions to allow him to travel to India to visit his father.

‘Close personal friends’?

In an interview with The Age this week, Mr Kohli said he only ever tried to bring people together to benefit the broader interests of the Indian-Australian community. He said he had also worked closely with senior federal Liberal politicians such as Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Housing Minister Michael Sukkar over the years.

“I have no ambition to be in politics. I’m not a member of any political party. I’ve never asked a favour from anyone,” he said.

Mr Kohli said he was not interested in responding to Ms Vaghela’s accusations of bullying because he believed everyone in the Indian-Australian community knew them to be false.

Ms Vaghela also named a former adviser in Mr Andrews’ private office, Vinayak Kolape, as another member of the group who she claims bullied her. Mr Kolape has strongly denied the bullying claims. An organisation directed by Mr Kolape, the Victorian Cultural Association, has received at least $100,000 in grants from the government in recent years to help stage the Wyndham Holi festival.

Following Labor’s 2018 election win, Mr Kolape was employed as an adviser in Mr Andrews’ private office. He was photographed campaigning for Mr Andrews in 2014 and for Labor’s Altona member, Jill Hennessy, in 2018.

Kaushaliya Vaghela

A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews said Mr Kolape was employed under “appropriate processes”. Sources familiar with his employment who are not authorised to speak publicly said the job was not advertised. Mr Kolape was sacked from his job on Mr Andrews’ private staff last year.

Ms Vaghela, who in 2018 was elected as a Labor member for the upper house’s Western Metropolitan region, has alleged the bullying began that year after she switched from Mr Andrews’ Socialist Left faction to the more right-wing Labor Moderate group headed by former minister Adem Somyurek.

Mr Somyurek’s involvement in alleged “industrial scale” stacking of ALP branches, including allegedly paying for party memberships of people from the Indian-Australian community in a bid to expand his powerbase led to his dumping as a minister in 2020 and an investigation by Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog.

Ms Vaghela, who did not respond to requests for comment for this article, has said she filed a written complaint about the alleged bullying and harassment of her with Mr Andrews’ office in May last year.

She also maintains that allies of Mr Andrews had intimidated, mocked, and sneered at her at public events. Individuals from this same group of men had also sent her threatening text messages in the early hours of the morning and, in one instance, grabbed the bicep of her husband “in a state of rage” at a public event.

Mr Andrews has rejected Ms Vaghela’s accusation that he was also involved in bullying her by ignoring her at public events. WorkSafe Victoria is investigating Ms Vaghela’s claims.

The real estate agent

Mr Dandiwal, a real estate agent and property developer who has been involved in the sale of more than $3 billion worth of land on Melbourne’s fringe over the past decade, has also been a prominent figure in the Australia India Strategy Group.

His company, PSP Property Group, sponsored Indian community events at Parliament House attended by Mr Kohli, Planning Minister Richard Wynne and then Roads Minister Luke Donnellan in 2018 and 2019.

‘Everything I touch turns to sold’: Manpreet DandiwalCredit:Eamon Gallagher

Mr Kohli said the real estate agent was just one of many business figures from the Indian-Australian community keen to raise issues with politicians.

“What people do in their business we don’t know because it is not our business,” he said when asked about Mr Dandiwal’s assault charges and alleged misleading real estate practices.

This election, it appears the Australia India Strategy Group will not be playing such a key role in advising Mr Andrews and Labor. It was deregistered as a public company in January. But Mr Kohli, who also goes by the name of Surinder Kohli, remains a man of influence within his community and beyond.

Know more? Contact Richard Baker securely richardjb33@protonmail.com

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2022-03-26 18:00:00Z
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