Victorian ministers will now have to disclose their meetings with lobbyists as part of reforms long sought by the anti-corruption watchdog to bring the state into line with New South Wales and Queensland.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, on Friday announced a new ministerial code of conduct, which will require ministers and parliamentary secretaries to publish quarterly diary summaries outlining scheduled meetings with lobbyists, stakeholders and other external organisations.
The summaries must disclose the date of the meetings, their purpose and all those who attended. The first diaries are expected be publicly released in March.
The move brings Victoria into line with NSW and Queensland, where ministers have been required to publish their diaries since 2014 and 2013, respectively, and follows a recommendation by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac).
Other aspects of the code of conduct – including a ban on employing family members as staff or in certain public sector bodies – are directly in response to the 2022 joint ombudsman and Ibac investigation, dubbed Operation Watts.
That investigation exposed “egregious” and “extensive misconduct” by Victorian Labor MPs, including widespread misuse of public resources, rampant nepotism and attempts to interfere with government grants. But the investigation also found there was not enough proof the former ministers had committed criminal offences to recommend prosecution.
Several witnesses described government jobs as a form of currency used by those within Labor’s moderate faction, including former minister Adem Somyurek, who employed close relatives, including his father as a cleaner and his sister as an electorate officer. Somyurek has denied any wrongdoing and claimed he had complied with legislation, custom and practice.
Under the changes, ministers will also have to disclose interests and declare conflicts as well as any gifts, benefits and hospitality they receive for publication.
The changes come into effect immediately but will not be retroactive.
“The updated code of conduct will hold ministers and parliamentary secretaries to the highest standards – that’s what all Victorians expect and deserve,” Allan said in a statement.
Catherine Williams from the Centre of Public Integrity welcomed the reforms, describing the release ministerial diaries as a valuable accountability mechanism to help the public understand who was seeking to influence ministers.
But she said it was “unfortunate” that the diaries would only be required to include “scheduled meetings” with lobbyists.
“The achievement of the transparency and accountability objectives towards which these reforms are directed will be impaired unless all meetings with external stakeholders are disclosed, with some very limited exceptions,” Williams said.
She also was concerned the code was enforceable by the premier.
“Where the person enforcing a ministerial code of conduct is the leader of the government, there is inevitably going to be an incentive to minimise perceptions of wrongdoing,” Williams said.
“The next phase in this set of reforms is a system of independent enforcement that could, for one example, see allegations of [a] substantial breach brought within the jurisdiction of Ibac, as in NSW, where the Icac has jurisdiction.”
The Victorian Greens’ spokesperson for integrity, Tim Read, who also chairs the parliament’s powerful integrity and oversight committee, agreed there was “much more to do”.
“Victoria could be a leader on integrity in our country and instead we’re a laggard,” he said. “We need to legislate the codes of conduct for lobbyists, ministers and their staff and strengthen them to require clearer information on potential conflicts of interest.”
