Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Integrity and Oversight Committee

Performance of the Victorian Integrity Agencies 2020/21: Focus on Witness Welfare

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (10:28): I rise today as my colleagues from the 59th Parliament have afforded me the privilege to give a report on the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the Performance of the VictorianIntegrity Agencies 2020/21: Focus on Witness Welfare. This review was prompted by the tragic death of former councillor and mayor of Casey Amanda Stapleton. I have spent the last couple of days reading through this report. This factor was widely acknowledged in the confidential submissions made to the inquiry along with the broad-ranging public commentary, which certainly is not helpful, particularly after a tragic event like that occurs – and also before and during, which is why the minority report of this review holds the recommendations that it does, and that is what I will be speaking on today.

Following this avoidable and devastating situation, the Integrity and Oversight Committee – which I have had the privilege to join recently – had a responsibility to listen to witnesses and make recommendations to government to ensure such events never happen again. The committee failed to call any witnesses through its public hearing process that were directly and personally involved in the subject matter. The committee also failed to engage in comprehensive dialogue with the Commissioner of IBAC at his request. We have heard other members today talk about the government dominating different committees and the same appears to have happened here, which fundamentally fails in its responsibilities to witnesses, the integrity bodies that oversee the Parliament and ultimately the people of Victoria. So let us go through the recommendations from the minority report. Recommendation 1 states:

When undertaking a call for submissions, this Committee should fully disclose how the submission could be received and treated. This should include information relating to a submission being received as public, confidential or partially confidential as well as advice about the possibility of presenting to the Committee in a public or private hearing.

The second recommendation is:

A short public statement, accompanying every confidential or partially confidential submission, should be included on the Committee website that articulates the reason why the Committee has determined confidentiality.

In my mind, it makes complete sense. It is a little bit of common sense and again in my mind we need a little bit more of it. The third recommendation is:

If this Committee states that it will hear from individuals and a determination is then made not to do so, this decision of the Committee – and the members who favoured that outcome – will be published on the Committee website.

A member: Accountability.

Jade BENHAM: Accountability. Who would have thunk it? Recommendation 4 states:

Undertake a review of the legal framework that restricts the Committee from inquiring about and questioning a witness that may be the subject of a confidentiality notice issued by an integrity agency.

Recommendation 5 states:

Integrity agency leaders should be afforded the opportunity to meet or present to the IOC when they so request, in any instance. The facilitation of this meeting should be the obligation and responsibility of the Committee Chair and Secretariat and must be undertaken as a matter of priority.

And the last recommendation is:

Committee members must be required to disclose, at the earliest opportunity, any interference in Committee business that they become aware of – or are party to – by the PPO or any other politically aligned individual or body.

These are pretty simple, pretty commonsense accountability and integrity recommendations. The stated intent of this inquiry and the process that followed, including the hearings, just do not match. The recommendations within the committee report have been unreservedly affected by the limitations placed upon the inquiry process by Labor government members of the committee.

A member: As always.

Jade BENHAM: As always. The government members of this committee did not act with integrity during the course of this inquiry, and for all of these failures that are set out in the minority report the opposition members of this committee were compelled to oppose the adoption of the committee report and table the minority report.