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Movement needed on Integrity Commission, says LCA
The Law Council of Australia has called on the federal government to release the Exposure Draft of the Bill for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission as soon as possible.
Jerome Doraisamy
By delaying the release of the draft bill, LCA president Pauline Wright said, the government is “falling behind Australia’s obligations” as a signatory of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which includes developing policies in relation to anti-corruption.
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“It has been almost two years since the government announced that they would establish a Commonwealth Integrity Commission to strengthen integrity arrangements across the federal public sector,” she said.
“Corruption has many corrosive effects on society. It undermines democracy and the rule of law as well as being capable of distorting market forces. The government should not delay the release of the Exposure Draft any longer. The COVID-19 pandemic is no excuse for postponing this important measure.”
LCA “strongly supports” the establishment of the Commonwealth Integrity Commission, Ms Wright continued, but added that the advocacy group retains concerns about the government’s proposed model, which was foreshadowed in its previously released consultation paper and pertains to the establishment of two separate divisions – one for the public sector and one for law enforcement – both with differing scopes of powers and definitions to the term “corrupt conduct”.
“The Law Council considers that the powers between the public sector and the law enforcement divisions of the proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission should be aligned,” she posited.
“A Commonwealth Integrity Commission dealing with law enforcement and the public sector should not deal with complaints regarding judicial officers. To ensure the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers, the Law Council has long pressed for a stand-alone Federal Judicial Commission to be established to consider complaints regarding the conduct of members of the federal judiciary.”
“While the Law Council understands the legislation is with the Attorney-General, and given there was $100 million set aside in the 2019 budget, it remains unclear what is preventing the release of the Exposure Draft,” Ms Wright concluded.
