Parliamentary integrity
Dr READ (Brunswick) (17:23): (6502) My adjournment this evening is for the Premier, and the action I seek is that he immediately establish an independent parliamentary integrity commissioner to investigate allegations of misconduct by Victorian MPs, ministers and their staff. After years of endless misconduct and scandal at the highest echelons of the Andrews Labor government, Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog, IBAC, has recently recommended that a parliamentary integrity commissioner be established. In 2019 the Greens put forward amendments in Parliament to create such an integrity commissioner based on the UK model, but the Victorian Labor Party opposed and voted against these amendments, reportedly because of the Premier’s opposition to a powerful independent office having oversight of MPs and ministers. Premier, blocking the creation of a parliamentary integrity commissioner three years ago may have allowed the ongoing culture of disgraceful behaviour to continue throughout this Parliament, so I would expect that you would now get on and implement this reform without delay. Instead of waiting until 2024 as announced, creating an integrity commissioner prior to the election would also be prudent, given the most egregious and frequent misconduct from MPs and political parties appears to occur around election time. We have legislation quite literally lying around which could be passed if we had the genuine will of the state government to act now to improve standards and integrity of all MPs and ministers regardless of political affiliation. It is no accident that Victoria is now referred to across Australia as a laggard on matters of parliamentary integrity. Turning that reputation around involves real action from Victoria’s Premier. There must be no more delays in creating a parliamentary integrity commissioner.