National Anti-Corruption Commission

You

know, I'll just add here, I have never worked for something like the National Anti-Corruption Commission, but I would be frankly horrified if any of my former Teams chats or the various inter-company chat logs were released.

Absolutely.

This is a great reminder to everyone, have those conversations at the pub over a beer.

This is costing us a lot of money, but just briefly explain how little they have done in the first few years of operation

yeah utterly bloody useless james would be my summary of the knack um you know the greens fought for a a federal icac right and instead we got this sort of toothless you know toothless hairless uh watchdog called the the national anti-corruption commission everything's done in secret none of those public hearings we get from icac um so no one knows what they're doing they're they're churning through over 60 million dollars a year guess how many prosecutions with that money after three years Guess how many prosecutions they've handed to the federal DPP over three years? Go on.

Pick a number.

Go on.

And I would have thought, I would have just thought that this is something that was worth a second look from the new corruption watchdog.

What are they doing? The National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Maybe just worth a second look.

I'm not saying or suggesting anything other than it's worth maybe just a second examination.

But wasn't this National Anti-Corruption Commission that Labor and the Teals made so much noise about, wasn't this vital to ensure that public money was being appropriately spent and we didn't have pork barreling going on? But of course, this corruption commission doesn't fill you with a whole lot of confidence.

There was a train wreck Senate estimates hearing in recent days, including this questioning from the Green Senator David Shoebridge.

I'm

And one of them is worth – one is in business with Mike Pompeo himself, his co-conspirator in Orcas, to make money out of Orcas.

I have referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, by the way, and got turned down, of course, because they're just as corrupt as the corruption they're supposed to be policing.

But one of these business enterprises, Morrison, is called American Global Strategies.

And I just want people to think about that name for a minute.

Uh, my diary is regularly, uh, published through FOI, uh, proposals, uh, so in response to the question.

But in response to, uh, the broader question raised by the member for Wentworth as well, uh, we established the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Uh, that was promised, uh, by, uh, previous governments but never delivered.

We've strengthened the ministerial code of conduct.

In this episode, Foley's List barrister, Steven Brnovic, examines the role of integrity oversight bodies in holding government agencies and decision makers accountable.

He explores integrity oversight at Victoria and the National Anti-Corruption Commission Inspector with practical guidance on complaints, procedural fairness, apprehended bias and judicial review.

My name is Steve Brinovich.

I'm a barrister at Foley's List.

And what happens when things go wrong? What happens when you or your client might be forced to turn over documents as part of some super secret squirrel investigation on behalf of the state? So today, I'm really going to look at admin law through the lens of navigating integrity oversight bodies.

So join me as we declassify, demystify, and dereductify all that you wish you knew about integrity oversight law.

So to give it a little bit more particularization, what I hope that you take out of today comes from an introduction of the two key integrity oversight bodies that is in Victoria, the Integrity Oversight Victoria, and also the NAC Inspector being the National Anti-Corruption Commission Inspector.

Why is this important? Well, this is a key part of the oversight of government bodies framework that aligns really with the principles of admin law, and I'll talk about that in a minute.

Well, it's hypocrisy on both sides, uh, I have to say with this.

And, you know, the best thing that can happen with all of these grants is that, uh, it'd be taken into an independent authority under the supervision of the Federal, uh, Corruption Commission.

Because, uh, it's not just the Labor Party that's done this.

As you rightly point out, it's all political parties.

Yes, and, and, you know, if you look at the Coalition's record, it's not much better either.

I mean, the, they've pork barreled as well.

Um, so you really do need to take it out of the hands of the pollies, and you need to put it into an independent, uh, body that has clear guidelines, and under the supervision of the Corruption Commission.

Because look, in any other jurisdiction, certainly in New South Wales under ICAC, a lot of those grants would be seen as corrupt.