Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (11:03): I am rising today to talk on the Integrity and Oversight Committee report The Adequacy of the Legislative Framework for the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission. That is a long title.

Jade Benham interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: Thank you, member for Mildura. I managed to get myself through that title, and your input is always fantastic. I am going straight to recommendation 5 of this report because I think this recommendation is the one that sums up what we need to do in this state, particularly when we see follow-the-dollar investigatory powers.

There is a lot of conjecture around at the moment about the corruption in this state – the absolute corruption in this state. The figure, obviously, that we are all talking about is $15 billion, and where has it gone? This is what Victorians want to know the answer to, and what this report has recommended is to give IBAC these powers. I am not quite sure why the government are so resistant on this and why, when we have committee reports that give recommendations, they are not taking up this particular recommendation. The government has come out against the opposition in a lot of this and said that figure is not true. Well, if that figure is not true, let us investigate and find out what the figure is. Let us give IBAC the powers to follow the money, to find out where the money has gone. I mean, that to me is common sense.

We do not know where it has gone. The Victorian public do not know where it has gone. Why won’t we have this investigation? Why won’t we go after the money and recoup the money? Because think of this: if we only recouped 1 per cent of $15 billion, that is $150 million. Now, I would ask anyone in this chamber: what would $150 million do for your community if we could recoup that – if we could follow the money? This is the question, and this is the recommendation in this report. No-one knows where it has gone. Is it the builders? Is it the subcontractors? Is it the suppliers? Is it the bikies? Is it the CFMEU? Or maybe there are government officials involved. I am not implying that, but I am saying we will not know unless we give IBAC these powers to follow the money. Victorians deserve to know the answer. I would have thought if the government were resistant to the $15 billion figure, that they would be proactively investigating this and proactively giving IBAC the powers as per the recommendation in this report. I do not understand the resistance – I really do not. There should not be resistance on this. When we are talking about a range from $15 billion to $30 billion, they are big numbers. They may be exaggerated, but they may not be exaggerated. This is why we should give IBAC these powers, as per recommendation 5. It is incumbent on the government to do this so Victorians have absolute transparency on where the money has gone.

What is the level of corruption on Victorian building sites? Everyone in this chamber knows that I love the construction industry. I love seeing things built, whether it be a road, a bridge, a hospital, whatever – I just love it. It is the one thing, as a builder, where you can drive past in 30 years time and say, ‘I did that.’ You take a lot of pride in what gets done. This is why I am concerned about this industry – the government is so reluctant to get to the bottom of the corruption within it. To give IBAC these powers and give IBAC the opportunity to investigate where the money has gone is imperative to transparency and, I would have thought, to the integrity of the government. If the government wants to talk about integrity, here is a good start: give IBAC the powers as per recommendation 5 in this report. If you do not want to be sledged by the general public and if you do not want to be sledged by the opposition about being corrupt or deceptive or whatever description they want to give, give IBAC the powers to follow the money. Let us be transparent about it. Let Victorians know where it has gone. The government should be immediately doing this, and they lost an opportunity this week.