The recently retired head of the Independent Commission Against Corruption has called for the establishment of a federal anti-graft agency with the powers of a standing royal commission, lamenting a grave “breakdown of trust” in the political process.
The comments of David Ipp, QC, come amid a sensational ICAC inquiry into the Liberal Party’s alleged laundering of illicit campaign finance by routing cheques via Canberra, where there is no dedicated corruption-busting agency.
“It is so screamingly obvious that there is a breakdown in trust at the moment and that the only way of maintaining trust or recovering the trust is to demonstrate that there are adequate means of discovering corruption so that the public can be confident that what the government is doing is not tainted by dishonest behaviour,” Mr Ipp told ABC-TV’s Four Corners.
An investigation by the program has obtained a copy of the former Rudd-Gillard government’s “National Anti-Corruption Plan 2013″, prepared by senior officers of the Department of Attorney-General.
The plan aimed to establish a new integrity regime for the vast Commonwealth public service, under which civil servants would be required to report any suspected corruption, but it fell dramatically short of the kind of measures Mr Ipp has said is required.
Critically, it envisaged no new oversight of federal politicians.
Australia is co-chair, with Italy, of the G20’s Anti-Corruption Working Group whose reports will be considered by senior G20 officials on Monday and Tuesday, but the government has yet to announce any federal mechanism by which corruption might be investigated and exposed.
Mr Ipp said the establishment of a federal anti-graft commission ”is very important”.
”There is no reason to believe that the persons who occupy seats in the Federal Parliament are inherently better than those who occupy seats in the NSW Parliament.
“Corruption is endemic to the human being. That is, when the opportunities are there, when there is no policing, there are some people who will get involved in that.”
But Mr Ipp acknowledged the creation of such an agency was unlikely.
