Wednesday, 17 May 2023

Statements on parliamentary committee reports

Integrity and Oversight Committee

The Independent Performance Audits of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian Inspectorate

Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (10:14): I rise to make a contribution on committee reports, including The Independent Performance Audits of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian Inspectorate minority report of October 2022. Integrity issues should always be bipartisan, so the actions of the Labor government in regard to IBAC recently have been underwhelming and disappointing – so much so that the Integrity and Oversight Committee published a minority report, an unprecedented step forced by the Labor majority of the committee trying, it seems, to cover up for the Labor government. My colleagues the member for Sandringham and the member for Rowville did an excellent job on the minority report, which highlights the tendencies of this Andrews Labor government in their influencing of the independent auditor. In the course of the audit the partner at the audit firm said it was ‘highly improbable that we will be able to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence’ due to restrictions on site visits, departures of key staff and other difficulties accessing relevant information. Ultimately the auditor was unable to express an opinion against the audit objectives.

In October 2022 the former chair of the parliamentary committee, Labor’s Dustin Halse, the former member for Ringwood, directly interfered with the auditor by telling them what should be in their report, which calls into question the real independence of the report. At one point the Labor chair of the committee even requested the live feed of a public hearing be cut in a blatant partisan attempt to protect the Labor government. This comes as a former IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich KC wrote to the Presiding Officers of this Parliament with concerns about corruption, including that the Integrity and Oversight Committee had been trying to ‘dig up dirt’ on IBAC. Indeed Redlich alleged that members of the Integrity and Oversight Committee had leaked to the media ‘to gain some political advantage’. Redlich also stated that:

These leaks seem designed to put IBAC in an invidious position as they often relate to confidential operational matters to which IBAC is not able to publicly respond. This ongoing problem has meant that IBAC must be quite selective as to what it can disclose to the IOC.

Incredibly, the Premier simply then dismissed Redlich as ‘someone who used to do a job who has written a letter that apparently says a whole bunch of stuff’. That was incredibly dismissive of someone of such eminence and experience who raised many genuine concerns that should have been taken seriously.

There is also the recent IBAC report which found ministerial advisers improperly influenced decisions that should be independently made by public servants. The inquiry concluded that staff pressured health department officials to award a $1.2 million contract to a union, and I might note that union directly donates to and is intertwined with the Labor Party. Incredibly, the Premier dismissed this report as clearly ‘educational’. Ombudsman Deborah Glass did not agree it was merely educational, saying the report was ‘damning’. The Ombudsman stated:

I think it says a lot about the Premier’s views on corruption and integrity … It was not an educational report. It was a damning report about misconduct of ministerial advisers and ministerial responsibility for those advisers. Victoria is now a laggard rather than a leader in parliamentary integrity.

Colleagues, do we think the Premier should listen to people like Robert Redlich and Deborah Glass speaking without fear or favour? Yes, he should. What kind of a Premier would not even want to read a letter about corruption occurring in his government, written by an eminent judge and former head of a corruption commission, and what Premier would ignore concerns from a person of the highest integrity, Deborah Glass? The Premier’s tendency in this regard with respect to lack of integrity and the centralisation of power in his personal office just shows the contempt that he has for this Parliament and the people of Victoria.

This is why the Integrity and Oversight Committee report is so important, specifically the minority report, which I encourage members opposite to read, along with the Redlich letter and Glass’s concerns. The state Labor government, those opposite, should not only read these letters or listen to these concerns, they must take action to reform the Integrity and Oversight Committee, to properly listen to and respond to the concerns of Redlich and Glass, to weed out politicised public service appointments, to improve integrity and to stamp out corruption.