Wednesday, 21 June 2023

Integrity and Oversight Committee

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

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (10:37): I am going to talk on a committee report. My report is the Integrity Oversight Committee’s report The Independent Performance Audits of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian Inspectorate. I want to draw my comments to the minority report and thank the member for Rowville and the member for Sandringham for their work. This is very important, this committee, because this committee and the overall framework in which IBAC operates is so integral to trust in any government. I make this point that the bar that has been set for IBAC is just so high to actually be able to achieve any real transparency integrity in this government. Unfortunately we have even seen so many questions – even from the former Commissioner Robert Redlich – in terms of the operation, the lack of powers and the lack of resources from the IBAC.

I would say certainly that this is something we need to get right in this Parliament. This minority report does talk about strengthening that in terms of some of these audits. If you look at a number of the audits that we have had, whether it be the Operation Daintree with the healthcare workers – $2.2 million given to a health union, which is effectively jobs for mates, and leaving aside the poor healthcare workers that needed that training. There have been so many instances where we have had IBAC look into these investigations and do some really good work. You see things that under any other jurisdiction you would find a government absolutely liable for this atrocious behaviour, but unfortunately in Victoria it just gets skated past and they move on to the next corruption problem. It is corruption after corruption after corruption, and the poor Victorian taxpayer has to pay the price, because ultimately, in many of these instances, there is money being shifted from one to the other and we all have to pay that price.

I take the example of some of the Big Build stuff at the moment, where again you have got corruption allegations on some of the Big Build sites. With Morson in particular there have been allegations of ghost shifting, where people are effectively being paid not to work. They have been stood down pending an investigation. These are the kinds of things IBAC could be looking into and should be looking into, but the very, very high bar at the moment makes it very, very difficult for them to look into that. So this committee is charged with actually looking at how we can make performance better and how we can do things better. Unfortunately we are just not doing that in this state of Victoria. We have got to have confidence, because if you see a situation like the case of the Big Build and the Metro Tunnel, which is big money – $13 billion of taxpayers money going to build a tunnel – and you are getting workers that are on those sites effectively being paid not to work, we have got to ensure that there is proper transparency and accountability for every project.

When you look at it, it is not just the members of Parliament in terms of the integrity, it is not just judges and police and others, but it is also the projects which governments are caught out on, and these are the some of the things that I think IBAC certainly need to look into. They need to have their powers strengthened and have the resources to be able to go forward as part of that.

We heard the member for Polwarth make mention of the Myki contract – again, allegations of huge corruption –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! If the member could maybe come back to the report.

David SOUTHWICK: Well, again, I would say that it is very important, Deputy Speaker, for us to have transparency and accountability. You cannot be awarding contracts to mates, and we have seen that happen time and time again. The absolute focus of any government should be to ensure that they are accountable to, ultimately, the voters that put them in this place. There has been IBAC report after IBAC report that unfortunately has shown all kinds of things but has fallen short of actually holding this government to account. I do not know how many people I meet on the streets that say, ‘How does the Andrews government get away with it? How do they keep getting away with corruption after corruption after corruption?’ Unfortunately it is because the powers are not strong enough in this state.

Paul Mercurio: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, on relevance, would you ask the member to come back to the committee report, please.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Hastings. There is now no point of order; the member’s time has expired. The member for Greenvale to continue on a committee report.