IBAC chief pushes for greater powers to fight corruption

Victoria’s anti-corruption boss says she wants wider powers to fight graft, and more freedom to talk openly about her work, as she battles to shore up public confidence in the state’s integrity regime.

In her first interview since her appointment amid controversy two years ago, Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commissioner Victoria Elliott told The Age the watchdog was hamstrung by legislation that required excessive secrecy and limited the scope of its investigations. The commission has also called for budgetary independence from the government.

Elliott told The Age that transparency was her main current focus. “I think there’s more to say about the work of IBAC. We want to say it, and we think the community deserves to hear it,” she said.

“Integrity is important. The more people that talk about it, the better the conversation.”

She also confirmed she had asked the Allan government for “follow the dollar” powers to extend the reach of IBAC’s investigation of dealings between government and business. IBAC wants to extend its reach to subcontractors working on government projects.

This move is being read by integrity and political insiders as a bid to boost the watchdog’s capacity to investigate alleged corruption in Victoria’s building industry revealed by this masthead’s Building Bad series.

A survey published last month by Transparency International Australia found a lower level of public confidence in this state’s anti-corruption regime than any other in Australia.

Elliott said the survey findings highlighted how Victorians had not been allowed sufficient insight into IBAC’s work due to the legislation under which the watchdog operates. “I want to amend that legislative framework,” she said.

While prosecutions and “special reports” of major investigations tabled in parliament attract publicity and public debate, Elliott pointed out that much of IBAC’s work had to be kept private. Of the 40 recommendations IBAC made to the government and its agencies last financial year, for example, most were in private.

“The same applies to the many reviews that we do and their outcomes. Last year, we reviewed over 200 investigations that police had done.”

Elliott said greater transparency would “help to build confidence and trust in the system, and it would encourage more people to come forward and report”.

The lawyer and former deputy head of the small and secretive Office of the Public Interest Monitor was a managing lawyer at IBAC from 2013 to 2016. Previously, she worked with the now-defunct Office of Police Integrity.

Unlike her predecessor, the outspoken Robert Redlich, Elliott does not have judicial experience, nor is she well known in political and legal circles.

When The Age revealed her appointment two years ago, both the opposition and senior legal figures questioned whether she had the experience and gravitas to hold an entrenched Labor government to account; they still do.

It was a tough start in a job that had been described as a “poisoned chalice” by political insiders because of an increasingly hostile relationship between Redlich and then-premier Daniel Andrews.

Elliott insists the criticism did not rattle her. “I’ve worked in the integrity space for over 25 years. I just came into the role, got on with the work. I think the work speaks for itself.”

Asked about her achievements in her two years in the job, Elliott said that in IBAC’s investigative space, she was “incredibly proud” of the Focused Police Complaints Team which investigates complaints about police by people at a higher risk of police misconduct, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

She also pointed to the launch of the “Corruption and Misconduct Allegations Dashboard” which provides detail about the type of allegations IBAC receives across the public sector including police.

But her job – the salary is in the realm of $500,000 a year – would be made easier by some key reforms.

Since 2022, IBAC has pressed the government to broaden its scope by lowering the bar for the launch of investigations. Currently, the definition of corruption is limited to conduct that would constitute a “relevant” or serious criminal offence. That definition rules out chasing the more prevalent jobs-for-political-mates-style “soft” or “grey” corruption.

IBAC’s NSW equivalent, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, has a broader remit that stretches to dishonesty, breaches of public trust and the MPs’ code of conduct. The Albanese government’s National Anti-Corruption Commission has adopted a lower threshold for investigations more in keeping with NSW than Victoria.

“We have a very high definition of corruption, the highest in the country,” said Elliott. “The test is too high in the sense that it doesn’t allow us to look at the level of seriousness or systemic issues that I think the public would expect us to be looking at.”

She said that in the 13 years since it was established, IBAC had learned a lot by looking at other jurisdictions. “We want our legislation to be more contemporary and to be in line with the majority of the anti-corruption agencies across the country.”

In 2023, for example, the NSW ICAC ended the political career of then-premier Gladys Berejiklian with a finding of serious corrupt conduct over conflicts of interest in her personal relationship with former MP Daryl Maguire.

Had it been in Victoria, it is unlikely an investigation would have been launched. But if it had, it is also doubtful the premier would have been examined in public, as Berejiklian was.

IBAC has also pushed for the threshold for public examinations to be lowered. The Victorian rules require that public grillings can proceed only where there are “exceptional circumstances”. That was an unnecessary condition that denied the public knowledge about IBAC’s investigations and activities, Elliott said.

She said that “follow the dollar” powers, if granted, would “enable [IBAC] to pursue public funds into the private sector and look at complex contractual arrangements with subcontractors and multiple subcontractors”.

She would not comment on whether the request related to any investigation of the building industry. She is not permitted to even acknowledge if such an investigation is under way.

However, in mid-2024, Premier Jacinta Allan confirmed she had referred building industry corruption allegations to IBAC and Victoria Police.

Enhanced “follow the dollar” powers would boost IBAC’s investigative reach and, therefore, its public output and profile, Elliott said.

“We think there’s more to say about our work, and we want to say it. People outside IBAC don’t know what’s going on inside. But when you’re here, you see there’s so much going on.”

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roycemillar@protonmail.com