Mark Dreyfus has confirmed Labor’s national integrity commission will have the power to investigate pork-barrelling as well as “serious and systemic” past corruption allegations.
The incoming attorney general made the comments on Wednesday, confirming he would consider aspects of a crossbench bill and consult independent MPs before introducing the government’s to parliament.
The comments are in line with Labor’s principles for its anti-corruption body, released before the election, promising a more independent body than the Coalition’s proposal.
Since his election as the Liberal leader, Peter Dutton has signalled the opposition may support the crossbench proposal, setting up the prospect parliament will be debating amendments to toughen its powers rather than water them down.
Dreyfus told ABC Radio National the commission “is going to be independent, it’s going to be powerful and it’s going to have the powers of a royal commission”.
“It’s going to deal with serious and systemic corruption,” he said. “It’s going to be able to receive allegations from a whole range of sources. It’s going to be able to, at its discretion, hold public hearings.”
Dreyfus said one of its most important features would be that it was “able to look into the past”, which he described as a “deficiency” of the Coalition proposal.
“We think that it’s completely inappropriate to suggest that an anti-corruption commission … [would] only be able to look at matters that arose after it was set up,” he said.
Dreyfus said he would not “direct” the commission but if allegations concerned “someone that’s still in public life, still senior public servant” or related to “a big pattern of corruption that stretches back years into the past” it is more likely to investigate.
“The longer back you go, the less likely it is that there’s going to be a public interest in that investigation going forward,” he said.
Dreyfus said that state and territory commissions against corruption use their powers to hold public hearings sparingly and “overwhelmingly” their work was done in private.
However, public hearings have benefits including building public confidence and showing how these bodies worked, he said.
“And very often the holding of public hearings some commissioners have told me is something that prompts others to come forward.
“It brings out evidence if people hear of the investigation because the public hearing is being reported on.”
Asked if the national integrity commission would have remit to consider pork- barrelling, the practice of showering public money on marginal or target seats for electoral advantage, Dreyfus confirmed it could if the program “falls within the commission’s view of serious and systemic corruption”.
“If any program of the commonwealth government falls within serious and systemic corruption, then that’s going to be a matter which the commission can determine that it will look at,” he said.
The comments raised the possibility that previous programs that were the subject of adverse auditor general reports, including the “sports rorts” program and the commuter car park program, could be investigated.
The previous Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, has argued pork-barrelling should be beyond the remit of anti-corruption bodies because ministers needed to retain discretion to depart from departmental recommendations.
Dreyfus recommitted to introducing legislation for the integrity commission this year, and suggested the body could be up and running by mid-2023.
He confirmed Labor would seek to legislate a prohibition on discrimination on the grounds of religion, although it had not put a timeframe on the commitment.
“At the core even of the [Morrison] government’s bill there was an appropriate structure of anti-discrimination law bringing in a prohibition on discriminating against people on the grounds of their religious belief,” he said.
Dreyfus confirmed that he was receiving briefings about whether to discontinue the prosecution of Witness K’s lawyer, Bernard Collaery, over representing the whistleblower of Australia’s spying on Timor-Leste.
“I’m not going to be commenting further until I’ve completed those briefings,” Dreyfus said.
“This is a serious prosecution and intervention in the prosecution process is something that has to be taken extremely carefully.”
