After months of resisting political pressure from Labor and the crossbench, the Morrison Government has announced a new Commonwealth Integrity Commission to investigate corruption in the federal public sector.
‘This was an exercise we embarked on in January of this year. We think it is always important to raise the bar… and ensure the public can have confidence in the integrity of Commonwealth public administration,’ said Prime Minister, the Hon Scott Morrison MP.
Comprising of a Law Enforcement Integrity Commission and a Public Sector Integrity Commission, the new Commission would have jurisdiction over all government departments, parliamentarians, Commonwealth service providers, the Australian Federal Police, the ATO, ASIC and APRA, among other bodies.
The decision to not make the Commission’s powers retrospective, or give it the ability to hold public hearings, has been subject to criticism from both the Opposition and members of the legal community.
Former NSW anti-corruption commissioner, Mr Ian Temby AO QC, said that ‘the public is entitled to know what the courts are doing, and how they are doing it. That is why the courts conduct public hearing. So it must be with any anti-corruption body’.
The Labor Party has promised its own anti-corruption body if it is elected in 2019. Opposition Leader, the Hon Bill Shorten MP, stated that the Morrison Government’s model is ‘too limited in scope, too limited in power, and has no transparency’.
The Government is calling for submissions regarding the body to be made by 1 February 2019, which will then be referred to an expert panel?—?the Commission is thus not expected to be legislated before the upcoming federal election.
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