2020-03-03
Attorney-General Christian Porter continues to avoid a clear answer on whether his long overdue proposal for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission would have enough teeth to cover the rorts scandals.
“Based on the Attorney’s comments to date, it seems like sports rorts would not have been covered, which shows how weak and ineffective it is likely to be - if it’s ever in fact established”, said Greens Senate Leader and spokesperson on democracy, Senator Larissa Waters.
Mr Porter also misled listeners this morning on Radio National about whether other states’ anti-corruption bodies had broad powers to investigate corruption that was not a criminal offence.
“The Attorney-General is designing an integrity commission with no teeth and trying to pass that off as normal. But in Senate Estimates today, I pointed out that six of the eight State or Territory integrity bodies have much broader powers to investigate the type of conduct we’ve seen with sport rorts.
“It’s misleading for Minister Porter to make out that his toothless version is the norm.
“I’ve asked the Department to advise the Minister that his comments were incorrect and will pursue that this afternoon.
"The Attorney-General needs to come clean and admit his Integrity Commission is too weak to address the key corruption scandals currently facing the government, or he has to admit that the conduct of the Prime Minister and former Minister Bridget McKenzie amount to an offence that warrants investigation.
“We could have a strong corruption watchdog legislated by Easter if the government brought on a vote in the House for the Greens’ National Integrity Commission.
“The Greens will keep this firmly on our agenda until we have an independent body established with the strength and resources to stop the scandals and restore the public’s trust,” she said.