Wednesday, 22 March 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

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (10:09): I rise to speak on The Independent Performance Audits of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian Inspectorate, a report of the Integrity and Oversight Committee that was presented to the 60th Parliament of Victoria. The document contains both majority and minority reports, which I will speak to. The Integrity and Oversight Committee is one of the Parliament’s most important committees, but the committee, as highlighted in this report, was unable to do the job which was required, to do an assessment of IBAC within the four-year time frame. The report demonstrates that a critical assessment of IBAC was unable to occur due to the composition of the committee. The committee is responsible for monitoring and reviewing the performance of IBAC, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission; the Victorian Inspectorate; the Victorian Ombudsman; and the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner. But the committee could not do its job because of the composition. Basically there was a majority of government members on the committee and a government member as chair – so government overseeing its own work. The report highlighted this. The majority report concentrated on the fact that Callida Consulting was a group appointed by the committee to try and do the assessment that was required, but they spent most of their time trying to understand what they were permitted to access because the secrecy that they encountered was too onerous to do their work.

What we saw as a result of that late last year was that Robert Redlich, the former commissioner of IBAC, appointed by the Andrews Labor government themselves, went on radio and made some damning statements about the audit process. Mr Redlich stated that he had concerns about the Andrews Labor government’s lack of action to ensure that the Integrity and Oversight Committee was transparent and able to do its job impartially. Basically, he brought up that the composition of the committee made it a farce. Mr Redlich was concerned that the Integrity and Oversight Committee had been compromised as well, and to be clear the head of the anti-corruption agency was concerned that important parliamentary committee dealings with integrity had been compromised. To be really clear, Mr Redlich was concerned about the integrity and conduct of the Andrews Labor government. Mr Redlich was so concerned that not only did he raise this issue publicly on radio but he also wrote to the Speaker of the house and the President of the chamber next door. Now, that letter was dated 15 December 2022. That is actually over three months ago. That should have been enough for the Andrews Labor government to act. Today we hear that a deal has been done –

Will Fowles: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the holding of the book containing the report does not automatically make the speech about the report. This has drifted miles away from the contents of that report, and I would ask you, Chair, to bring the member back to the committee report.

Roma BRITNELL: On the point of order, Deputy Speaker, it quite clearly states in these 396 pages that the process to be able to do the assessment was flawed and that it could not be done effectively, and that is very much what the almost 396 pages actually talk about. And I have read it. Have you?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, please, member. The member to continue. There is no point of order.

Roma BRITNELL: Yes, I will continue. We have had really damning and concerning statements brought up by a very eminent person. But that person was not enough for the government to act, and we then saw another eminent person come out and speak about the importance of integrity. To be very clear, this was a former judge of the Victorian Court of Appeal, the Honourable Mr Stephen Charles KC, and he actually said that the people of Victoria should be having their doubts that the Andrews Labor government is concerned about integrity.

But today we have seen a deal done. After working so hard as Liberals to get rid of the secrecy and have integrity prevail, we can see that today we have got a result, and it is all down to the Liberals, and thanks for the – (Time expired)