Follow-the-money powers to be announced for IBAC amid Big Build corruption

Victoria’s peak corruption-busting agency will be given the power it has long asked for to investigate the misuse of public funds on the state’s Big Build construction sites.

Premier Jacinta Allan is expected to reveal as early as this afternoon a plan to boost the coercive powers and reach of the state’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, which was established 15 years ago.

The proposed law changes, which follow years of lobbying by successive IBAC commissioners, would give the agency follow-the-money powers similar to those already available to the Victorian Auditor General and enable expanded use of public hearings in corruption investigations.

This would enable IBAC to extend its inquiries beyond the conduct of primary contractors to labour-hire companies and subcontractors involved in government-funded projects.

News of the changes comes as Allan is struggling to contain the political fallout and reputation damage from the criminal infiltration of major infrastructure projects, which barrister Geoffrey Watson, SC, estimates has cost taxpayers $15 billion.

Parliament’s integrity oversight committee, in its most recent report, tabled last December, called for the government to overhaul IBAC’s legislative framework.

Included in its recommendations were proposed legislative changes to broaden the definition of corrupt conduct, introduce follow-the-money powers and expand the use of public hearings beyond the “exceptional circumstances” provision already in the IBAC Act.

IBAC, since its establishment under the Baillieu government, has been limited by a narrow definition of corrupt conduct which means that it must suspect on reasonable grounds that a crime has been committed before it can launch an investigation and invoke its coercive powers.

It has rarely held public hearings, even in matters of high public interest. A striking example of this was IBAC’s decision to question then premier Daniel Andrews behind closed doors in relation to four separate anti-corruption investigations in December 2021.

This is in stark contrast to the approach taken by ICAC, the peak anti-corruption agency in NSW. Former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell famously resigned after inadvertently misleading ICAC during a public hearing about a donated bottle of wine. Gladys Berejiklian quit as premier before she was publicly examined.

The federal National Anti-Corruption Commission has the same “exceptional circumstances” provision as Victoria’s IBAC. All of its examinations have been conducted in private since the agency was established in July 2023.

The case for IBAC reform has been made by former commissioners Stephen O’Bryan and Robert Redlich, current Commissioner Victoria Elliott and the Centre of Public Integrity and Transparency International.

Victoria’s three leading integrity agencies – IBAC, the Ombudsman and the Auditor General – are also pushing for their annual budgets to be set by parliament instead of the government.

Transparency International Australia chair Professor AJ Brown earlier this year presented survey data showing that public confidence in the Allan government’s commitment to fighting corruption was the lowest of any state.

The survey was taken after this masthead’s Building Bad series exposed the infiltration of government-funded construction sites by corrupt union officials, bikie gangs and gangland figures.

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