MARK DREYFUS
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
PORTER CONFIRMS MORRISON'S INTEGRITY COMMISSION IS ANOTHER RORT
Attorney-General Christian Porter has today admitted his proposed Integrity Commission is so feeble, it would not even be able to investigate the Morrison Governments sports rorts scandal.
Mr Porter today falsely claimed that existing state and territory integrity commissions could only examine matters where a crime had been committed.
KELLY: Well, its an integrity commission, its investigating matters of integrity. That doesn't necessary mean criminal offences.
PORTER: That's just not correct. So, integrity commissions or corruption commissions or whatever that they're called, investigate things which are written into statute as offences.
KELLY: But not the sports grants?
PORTER: Neither the police nor integrity commissions investigate things that aren't offences. Thats just how it works.
ABC Radio National, 3 March 2020
While police are confined to investigating criminal acts, integrity commissions have a much wider brief to investigate corruption by politicians and public officials.
Every existing state and territory integrity commission is able to go beyond the criminal law and examine issues of corrupt conduct and integrity.
The definition of corrupt conduct for Victoria's IBAC, for example, includes dishonest performance, recklessly breaching public trust and misuse of information by a public officer or public body.
What Mr Porter has actually revealed through his false claims is that his own model for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission is so weak and so secretive it wouldn't be able to investigate reeking Morrison Government scandals such as sports rorts.
Mr Porters proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission has been derided by legal experts as a sham designed to hide corruption rather than to expose it.
The form of the CIC proposed by Porter would produce a feeble and ineffective anti-corruption body.
Stephen Charles, QC, former judge of the Victorian Court of Appeal
Through his ignorance and false claims Mr Porter has once again demonstrated his complete contempt for integrity.
Its now been almost 15 months since the Prime Minister and Attorney-General announced they would establish a weak, ineffective and opaque Commonwealth Integrity Commission.
At that time, Mr Morrison insisted work had already been underway on the proposal since January meaning its now been more than two years since the Government claims to have started working on a Commonwealth Integrity Commission.
In January, Mr Porter admitted to missing his own deadline to release a draft bill before the end of last year.
The scandals surrounding Angus Taylor and Bridget McKenzie show why Australia needs a powerful and independent National Integrity Commission and why the Prime Minister and Attorney-General are so determined to delay any action to bring one about.
Unlike the Morrison Government, Labor believes tackling corruption and promoting integrity is essential to restoring public trust in government.
TUESDAY, 3 MARCH 2020
