Scott Morrison has buckled to pressure from crossbench MPs and announced Australia will be getting a federal anti-corruption commission with ‘real teeth’ – a fortnight after describing it as a ‘fringe issue’.
The Prime Minister’s announcement of a new Commonwealth Integrity Commission came a fortnight after independent MPs voted with Labor and the Greens to set it up.
Mr Morrison, who leads a minority government, on Thursday announced the federal equivalent of an independent commission against corruption, just 17 days after describing it as ‘some sort of fringe issue’ in Parliament.
Critics have labelled it as pointless and slammed the idea of a government-funded body holding secret hearings into alleged public sector wrongdoing.
Scott Morrison (pictured) has buckled to pressure from crossbench MPs and announced Australia would be getting a federal anti-corruption commission with ‘real teeth’
‘This is a real proposal, with real resources, real teeth,’ Mr Morrison told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.
‘These are sensible changes we’re outlining today. They learn the lessons, I think, from many of the failed experiments we’ve seen at a state jurisdiction level.
‘I have no interest in establishing kangaroo courts.’
On November 26, the Prime Minister described the idea of a national integrity commission as ‘some sort of fringe issue’ after Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asked him Question Time if the government would support a bill introducing it.
Former Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary Tim Lyons, now a research fellow with the Per Capita think tank, describing private hearings as ‘pointless’
Cairns man Bill Gregson joked it would snare too many politicians for corruption
The establishment of a federal ICAC is a major backflip for the Liberal Party, which opposed the idea in 2015 when Tony Abbott was prime minister.
Mr Abbott opposed the idea again earlier this year during a joint Coalition party room meeting.
There were also critics of the idea from the left of politics with former Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary Tim Lyons, now a research fellow with the Per Capita think tank, slamming the idea of private hearings into public sector wrongdoing.
‘What an utterly pointless thing this Commonwealth Integrity Commission would be: no hearings, no reported findings,’ he tweeted.
Cairns man Bill Gregson joked it would snare too many politicians for corruption.
‘Funny, will be no members of parliament left,’ he tweeted.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull (left with Scott Morrison in August when he was treasurer)
Mr Shorten in January promised a Labor government would establish a federal integrity commission were it to win next year’s election.
During that same month, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s government started work behind the scenes on setting it up.
The Coalition, however, had stopped short of committing to creating a new body.
Coalition MPs voted with independents members, Labor and the Greens in late November to set a federal integrity commission to avoid a humiliating defeat on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Independent Cathy McGowan had moved a private member’s bill.
Last month, Liberal Attorney-General Christian Porter raised concerns about her idea, arguing an ABC journalist could be regarded as ‘corrupt’ for fronting a biased report.
On Thursday, Mr Morrison said Australia led the world in public administration integrity, and a new anti-corruption body will continue that work.
In late November, Coalition MPs voted with independents MP Kerryn Phelps (pictured), Labor and the Greens to set it up a federal integrity commission to avoid defeat in Parliament
‘We’re about having a robust, resourced, real system to protect the integrity of Commonwealth public administration,’ he said.
The Commonwealth Integrity Commission’s establishment in 2019 will be occurring 30 years after a Coalition government in New South Wales, led by Liberal premier Nick Greiner, established an Independent Commission Against Corruption.
The idea was later copied in Queensland under Labor’s Wayne Goss, following the Fitzgerald inquiry into corrupt ministers under the rule of former National Party premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
A new Commonwealth Integrity Commission will be a bigger version of an existing anti-corruption agency, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, which monitors the Australian Federal Police, financial intel authority AUSTRAC, the Department of Home Affairs and some parts of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.
The public sector division of this commission will only be allowed to hold private hearings.