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FIFTEEN YEARS after Transparency International Australia recommended that we have a national anti-corruption body and 14 years AFTER we were PROMISED a Commonwealth Integrity Commission by John Howard in 2006 - Attorney-General Christian Porter FINALLY released his draft Legislation for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission last week.
And we got EXACTLY what Prime Minister Morrison told us they would give us - Legislation for a weak, non-retrospective and 'toothless' anti-corruption Commission that will ensure that NOTHING Australians THINK OF as corruption (like Sports Rorts or dodgy water deals) would be investigated if this Legislation is passed.
A 'Claytons' anti-corruption body - and for those as old as me this really means: 'the anti-corruption body you institute when you absolutely DON'T WANT an anti-corruption body'!
As written by Stephen Charles AO Retired Judge in the Sydney Morning Herald on 20/10/20 (full article attached at the bottom of this update - please read):
"Porter knew from the moment he released his draft proposal in December 2018 that his proposal would be derided as completely defective in: being divided into halves, the much weaker part covering most of the public sector, including parliamentarians and their staff; having a very narrow jurisdiction and definition of “corrupt conduct”; having a threshold preventing full early investigation and thus inhibiting the NIC’s ability to decide whether to continue the investigation; denying individuals any right to complain directly to the CIC; and explicitly providing there would be no public hearings, and no public reports of investigations.
Porter’s CIC would have the most limited ability to start an investigation, and no publicity would be given to it unless and until a prosecution was actually started. What use would the Hayne Commission have been if it had been kept secret from start to finish?
Porter’s CIC model is so framed as to prevent anything short of flagrant criminal activity being investigated. As the sports rorts showed, and comments by Cabinet ministers afterwards underlined, the Coalition was content to tolerate the political corruption that had been exposed.
The Coalition clearly sees no impropriety in returning favour for favour, nor in benefits being granted to those making substantial donations to the party. The CIC model is intended to protect ministers, parliamentarians and public servants, preventing them from being investigated so long as they don’t embark on “brown paper bag” bribery."
AFTER over 7 YEARS in Government THIS was the best Legislation they could come up with?
Since 2009, the Australian Greens have introduced FIVE different Bills for a National Integrity Commission to our Parliament!
https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2018-11-29.40.1
The latest Bill introduced by Greens was Cathy McGowan's AO MP (former Independent for Indi in Victoria) 2018 Legislation based on previous Greens Bills and based on the NSW ICAC model.
After more amendments National Integrity Commission Bill 2018 (No. 2) was finally PASSED by the Senate in Sept 2019
For those of you wanting to read the COMPLETE Legislation you can find it here:
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018B00226
Dr Helen Haines MP another Independent for Indi who was elected to follow on with Cathy's excellent work - ALSO introduced Legislation for an Integrity Commission in October - but despite getting support from Judges, civil society stakeholders, ethicists and even some LNP MPs for her Bill - we are waiting to see if this Government will even ALLOW debate on it!
Labor has said they will support DEBATE on the Bill (must be debated before it can be voted on) but can't guarantee IF they'll VOTE for it? Seriously?
Helen has also said she intends introducing a Bill for a Code of Conduct as well.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/10/27/federal-icac-pressure/
It appears BOTH sides of Politics need US to insist that WE - the PEOPLE of Australia DEMAND a MEANINGFUL and INDEPENDENT anti corruption body!