Wednesday, 17 May 2023

Integrity and Oversight Committee

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

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (10:24): I would like to speak on TheIndependent Performance Audits of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian Inspectorate report, which was completed in October 2022, and I understand it is one of the approved reports that we are able to debate in this chamber. I would like to refer to page 4 of the minority report at the rear of this committee report, because it raises some deep concerns around the appointment of the independent auditor of IBAC and some issues within that. As we know, it is very, very important that we do meet all of the legislative requirements to ensure that our government-funded organisations are audited to make sure that all of those legislative requirements are met.

I do note that the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission Act 2011, the IBAC act, specifically requires an appointment of a performance auditor to determine whether this agency ‘is achieving its objectives effectively, economically and efficiently’. Now, with IBAC, they have an enormous amount of work to do. In fact if we look at IBAC and its ability to do its work efficiently, we can look no further than the front page of today’s Herald Sun, which would indicate that there is yet another IBAC investigation into the corrupt Andrews Labor government. It is labelled ‘Code red alarm’, and it indicates that this follows an investigation by the Victorian Ombudsman into an issue whereby it appears that there were an increased number of code 1 calls in the lead-up to the election; however, there was no code red called at all. Now, of course when a code red is called it means that the community is told ‘Make your own way to the hospital if you possibly can’ and it takes additional pressure off ambulance services. This is something that is very, very important in supporting our fabulous health workers across the system, particularly when there is incredible demand. We know there is a massive shortfall in the number of health workers within our hospital system, within our mental health system and within the ambulance system, and when a code red is called it is done for a reason: it is to make sure that the most critically ill people have ambulances quarantined off for them so they can get to hospital quickly and get the treatment that they need.

Now, it is deeply concerning – and this is something the Victorian Ombudsman has been looking at – that what has actually been taking place is that, perhaps, a government call was made: ‘We don’t want any code reds called into the lead-up to the election because it could be bad for us.’ It would have determined that perhaps some of the members here would not have been elected if there had been some front-page news about code reds being called in the ambulance system in the lead-up to the election last year. And so it appears we have got another IBAC investigation that will look very, very deeply into whether that call was actually made by the corrupt Labor government. Now, it is important of course that we make sure that there is –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Point of order, Minister.

Danny Pearson: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I know that the member is not impugning the reputation of a member of this place, but I do take exception where the member is referring to this government as being corrupt. The other point I would make –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The point of order is?

Danny Pearson: The other point I would raise is that the committee report is fairly narrow, it relates to the performance audit which was conducted into IBAC. The member is straying into matters that do not relate to that audit and do not relate to the conduct of that audit, and I would ask that you bring the member back to the report itself rather than talking around it.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will rule on the point of order. On the point of order it has been a somewhat wideranging debate, although not completely. The member to continue, there is no point of order.

Emma KEALY: Thank you very much. While it is a very good little grab that we will be able to use for the member of Essendon to be talking about the Labor government being corrupt – it is important, as is outlined in this report, that we have independent audits of IBAC to make sure that it is achieving its objectives effectively, economically and efficiently. I do encourage all of the government ministers who are invited to provide evidence to IBAC through this code red IBAC investigation to recall everything, to make sure they are – (Time expired)