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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-25 Daily Xml
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CORRUPTION, LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:44): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question relating to corruption in local government.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: On 11 May 2010, two weeks ago, the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption issued the report Profiling the New South Wales Public Sector II Report 3. The report found that local government faces a greater risk of corruption but is less likely to take steps to prevent it. The research found that:

Fifty-eight per cent of councils had an audit plan compared with 92 per cent of state agencies, 85 per cent of councils had a risk management process compared with 95 per cent of agencies, and 44 per cent of councils had a forward control plan compared with 62 per cent of agencies.

The ICAC report found that councils were almost twice as likely to engage in functions with a high risk of corruption than state agencies, making them much more vulnerable to corruption. The report looked at the situation in New South Wales, a state that has a proactive anticorruption body, one with corruption prevention as a key function. In South Australia an investigation is currently underway and entering its 11th month into the Burnside council and there is an Ombudsman's investigation into another council. My questions are:

1. Does the minister consider that local government bodies in South Australia are at significant risk of corruption?

2. Given the absence of a proactive anticorruption body that works to prevent corruption, what steps is the minister taking to ensure that corruption is prevented in local government in South Australia?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:46): I thank the honourable member for his important questions, and, indeed, I believe that sufficient independent machinery does exist here in this state for dealing with criminal corruption, abuse of public office and similar matters by local government members and also officers. Council members and officers are public officers for the purposes of offences relating to public office set out in the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935, including bribery or corruption of public office, abuse of public office, and demanding or acquiring benefit on the basis of public office.

The Anti-Corruption Branch of the South Australia Police investigates complaints of alleged fraud, corruption and abuse of public office relating to local government and can also make investigations based on matters taken on its own initiative. Alleged breaches by individuals of provisions of the Local Government Act that have penalties attached to them, such as conflict of interest provisions for council members, are enforceable in the District Court. They can be made to me and are investigated by the Legislation and Governance Division of the Department of Planning and Local Government, so that is another avenue that is open to them, using the services of the Crown Solicitor and also the Government Investigations Unit.

We know that the Ombudsman has broad powers under the Ombudsman Act 1972 to investigate any administrative act of council, or a council subsidiary, either on receipt of a complaint or on the Ombudsman's own initiative, and we are well aware here in this place that, as minister, I have powers under the Local Government Act 1999 to appoint an investigator if I have reason to believe that a council has contravened or failed to comply with a statutory provision, or failed to discharge a statutory responsibility, or if an irregularity has occurred in the conduct of a council and its affairs in relation to matters arising from legislation.

So, we can see that there is a wide range of different machinery available to deal with corruption and other abuses of power, if and when they occur. We know the state government's position in relation to an ICAC. The Premier is on record as stating that he would support a national ICAC and that is something we are pursuing at a national level. The LGA fairly recently put into place the Local Government Governance Panel to assist councils in dealing with complaints of inappropriate behaviour by council members. These are lesser breaches, but nevertheless it is greater scrutiny of all conduct. That is chaired by Kym Kelly, the former CEO of the Attorney-General's Department.

The panel, as I said, is an important initiative that has been put in place to assist in matters of lesser complaint but, no less, I still think it is an important initiative. A wide range of mechanisms are available to the general public and to members of parliament to ensure that any issues around corruption are dealt with promptly and in a thorough way.

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