Tuesday, 8 September 2026

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (23:33): (2772) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, no less, and the action I seek is that he table in this house a complete list of Big Build corruption complaints, referrals or investigations that today’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission Amendment Bill 2026 would place beyond IBAC’s reach, beginning with Jacinta Allan’s July 2024 referral of alleged CFMEU misconduct on Big Build sites. IBAC said it lacked the jurisdiction to investigate that referral because the alleged conduct involved private entities. This bill finally gives IBAC the follow-the-money powers needed to examine such conduct, yet proposed section 203 says those powers do not permit IBAC to reopen a complaint or notification already dismissed or referred elsewhere, or an investigation already completed. That is the central contradiction.

The government insists that a fresh referral may still be considered, but the Special Minister of State would not confirm whether IBAC requested this restriction. The Shadow Attorney-General has already referred the publicly reported Big Build allegations to IBAC under the existing law. If that referral is dismissed before commencement, the government’s own provision appears capable of locking it out too. Robert Redlich has therefore sought a guarantee that referrals from the royal commission will not disappear behind the same wall. If the government is confident, it should explain which matters can be reconsidered and which cannot – hence my request.

Victorians waited eight years for Operation Richmond. IBAC called the conduct serious, concerning and contrary to government policy, procedure, convention and codes. The Premier called it intolerable, yet it still took a month for education secretary Tony Bates to be removed. In the week Ben Carroll most needed to prove his government is different, Labor has produced an integrity reform that may protect some of Labor’s most serious past controversies from the very powers created to investigate them. What exactly does this Premier have to hide? Tell us that. He of all people should know: if you promise transparency and deliver a stitch-up, you do not look clean, you look guiltier. Premier, table the cover-up list now.