The premier’s office referred the matter to Victoria Police on Saturday. But as of Wednesday afternoon,the agency had still not received a formal complaint from the alleged victim.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday insisted his office handled the complaint “impeccably”.

“Any alleged victim,witnesses,all of that is a matter for Victoria Police,as it should be,” the premier said. “Our job is simply to refer those matters on,and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”

Andrews has so far declined to say whether the alleged incident occurred inside Parliament House. A complaint has not been made to the Speaker’s office,meaning Fowles is unlikely to face a ban from entering the parliamentary precinct now that he has been booted to the crossbench.

Last year,the Speaker and president of the Legislative Council banned Liberal backbencher Neale Burgess from entering parliament after multiple allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards Victorian parliament staff.

Burgess denied the allegations,which were investigated by the Department of Parliamentary Services. The department’s report was never publicly released,and Burgess is no longer a member of parliament.

The Victorian Labor Party has also not received a complaint relating to Fowles and therefore will not investigate the alleged assault.

The opposition’s letter comes as the Coalition prepares to steer this week’s hearings examining the conduct of last year’s state election. Fowles is the chair of parliament’s electoral matters committee,which is responsible for Thursday and Friday’s hearings. His expected absence means upper house Liberal MP Evan Mulholland will oversee the grilling of Labor’s outgoing state secretary.

The Ringwood MP’s car was spotted at a property in central Victoria this week,where he has been laying low amid media coverage of the alleged assault.

Fowles was not at parliament for Wednesday’s swearing-in of Victoria’s new governor,Margaret Gardner,and he has scrubbed all mention from his website of a town hall event that was due to take place at Whitehorse Civic Centre on Wednesday evening.

The exiled Labor MP smashed a hole through a door at a Canberra hotel in July 2019 following an altercation with staff over access to his luggage. He later took leave to seek treatment for drug and alcohol issues.

At the time,the premier said Fowles had his “full support”,but colleagues also informed the MP that no more serious incidents would be tolerated.

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