2025-12-04
Today the Integrity and Oversight Committee made important recommendations to parliament in its report on IBAC’s legislation.
When public trust in governments and public institutions is falling, having an effective and visible anti-corruption commission is a powerful way of demonstrating the trustworthiness of those institutions.
The Greens say IBAC needs expanded powers to investigate ‘grey’ corruption. This follows the report’s findings that Victoria’s IBAC has less power than anti-corruption agencies elsewhere in Australia, particularly when compared to the NSW ICAC. Witnesses told the inquiry that Victoria’s IBAC would be unable to expose much of what has been exposed by ICAC in NSW and that Premier Berejiklian would have kept her job, if IBAC’s legislation existed in NSW.
The Greens are today calling on the Government to follow all recommendations by the Committee, who unanimously recommended that IBAC should be allowed to investigate integrity breaches that fall short of being an offence, but may still be worthy of dismissal.
They also recommended that IBAC should have ‘follow the dollar’ powers enabling it to investigate alleged corruption in government funded projects and services that are outsourced to private companies and subcontractors.
Quotes from Dr Tim Read, IOC chair and Greens spokesperson for Integrity.
“Why should IBAC be prevented from exposing forms of corruption in Victoria, that can be investigated in NSW?
“No government is in power forever, so I encourage the government to act on all recommendations.
“At a time when public trust in public institutions is falling, it’s important that Victorians know we have an active anti-corruption agency with no less power than any other part of Australia.
“When a government outsources services or projects, we still want to know that decisions are made fairly and in the public interest - they should not be hidden from corruption investigators.”