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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-23 Daily Xml
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Question Time

INDEPENDENT COMMISSION AGAINST CORRUPTION

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning, in his capacity as Leader of the Government, a question about an independent commission against corruption.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Tasmania's Integrity Commission, a body set up with the support of the ALP, the Liberal Party and the Greens to fight official corruption, commenced operations on 1 October. That means that South Australia and Victoria are now the only Australian states without an independent, autonomous anti-corruption commission. Victoria, riddled with corruption allegations, is now debating a proposal to take it from the Dark Ages to the Age of Enlightenment. Anti-corruption campaigners there have backed the Victorian coalition's proposal for a single one-stop shop to investigate corruption among police, politicians and their staff, ministers, the judiciary and local government. Yesterday, anti-corruption barrister and former National Crime Authority chief Peter Faris QC said:

This is what Victoria needs. This is not rocket science. The Independent Commission Against Corruption has been around in New South Wales for more than 20 years. It's been truly tested and we don't need to invest in coming up with a new model.

Additionally, Jerrold Cripps supports an independent commission against corruption. Mr Cripps is a former ICAC commissioner. He says that the anti-corruption commission needs to be entirely independent so it can properly investigate allegations without fear or favour. A former West Australian police commissioner, Bob Falconer, a staunch supporter of that state's Crime and Corruption Commission, also welcomed the coalition's proposed commission. My questions to the minister are:

1. Are Peter Faris, Jerrold Cripps, Bob Falconer and former Labor premiers Bob Carr and Peter Beattie all wrong in supporting an ICAC?

2. Does the minister believe that an anti-corruption commission in South Australia might be able to cast some light on the relationship between the ALP, Babcock and Brown and the Hines Group, the joint venturers of the Conservatory office building on Hindmarsh Square—who, incidentally, have donated almost $27,000 to state Labor since 2003?

The PRESIDENT: The honourable minister will disregard the opinion expressed, and also the asking for an opinion, by the honourable member.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (14:30): Mr President, the first point I make is that the member well knows that the Attorney-General is currently undertaking a review of integrity agencies within the state. The honourable member referred to some ICACs in other parts of the country but he might find this interesting. When I was in Hong Kong—I came back on Saturday morning—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: Have they got one?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Yes, they have. I happened to read the front page of the South China Morning Post, and guess what? Police have arrested three ICAC officers on graft charges. The police had to raid the ICAC. Of course, as you can imagine, if you have significant organised crime, obviously, the organised crime will target those bodies that are dealing with it. The interesting thing about the article in the South China Morning Post was that the officers involved were accused of coaching people. Because they were not getting the results in terms of corruption, allegedly they were coaching defendants to try to increase their record.

I mention that because the Hong Kong office has been mentioned as one of the models for this state, but it shows that one always has the issue of who is minding the minders. No matter how many of these agencies you have, you will always need another one. You can keep spending tens of millions of dollars more, but what you need is a range of bodies, as we have in this state, that will mean that no one body has the monopoly; because, if that happens, you can have the sort of situation that exists in Hong Kong. I wait with some interest to see how that evolves.

The point is that the Attorney-General is currently reviewing the range of organisations that we have in this state to ensure integrity and that what we have is up to date. If, at some stage in the future, we do have a Liberal government, past experience tells us that we will certainly need to update our agencies, because the most crooked governments in this country's history have undoubtedly been Liberal governments.

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