Today’s Budget Estimates hearings have made a complete mockery of the Greens’ assertions that the Integrity Commission does not have the budget to carry out its functions.
It was revealed that the Integrity Commission commenced only one investigation arising from a complaint in both 2013-14 and 2014-15 and one ‘own motion’ investigation each year.
As we heard from the CEO today, the Commission employs five investigators. The Government is confident that this represents adequate resourcing given the complaint and investigation workload.
In actual fact, in 2013-14 the Integrity Commission returned $300,000 to government and chose not to fill all of its vacant investigative positions.
As the CEO outlined in Estimates, the savings which the Commission found to meet its budget allocation this year did not include a reduction in investigators, but items such as reduced car and travel costs, a media adviser position, and cheaper rent arrangements.
Vanessa Goodwin, Attorney-General
