Shannon Deery: Operation Watts the first real test of IBAC’s political muscle

This week’s IBAC hearings will be essential viewing, with Premier Daniel Andrews in the firing line. But will the commission actually do anything?

One of the most expansive investigations in the history of Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog kicks off on Monday.

It will be essential viewing. But will it actually do anything?

Since its inception in 2013, just one sitting MP has been publicly grilled by the Independent Broadbased Anti-Corruption Commission.

We know for certain that others have been interrogated behind closed doors in private examinations.

But Monday’s public hearings will see state Labor MP Pauline Richards lose the dubious honour of being the only MP to face a public examination to date.

It’s hard to believe that the actions of no other sitting MPs have warranted a bit of scrutiny.

That the bar has been set too high to warrant formal investigations of complaints has long been a stinging criticism of Victoria’s corruption busting unit.

To date, it’s received well over 16,000 complaints.

Cranbourne MP Pauline Richards. Picture: David Geraghty

From that, fewer than 200 investigations have been launched.

It’s investigated Ambulance Victoria employees, Emergency Management Victoria staff and corrections officers.

Councillors and bureaucrats have also come under fire, most notably former Education Department bigwig Nino Napoli who ended up in jail for swindling taxpayer money after IBAC came calling.

Among its work IBAC has landed some decent blows.

Disgraced Public Transport Victoria boss Barry Wells copped almost a decade behind bars after he was caught living the high life for years off the back of more than $17 million he awarded himself in sham contracts.

Of that, he personally pocketed about $1.3 million that he used to renovate his house and splash out on a $15,000 grand piano, gold bullion, and a jet ski named “Bazdawgs”.

Anthony Dieni was jailed for 14 years after an IBAC investigation into allegations he had deliberately misled courts to help crooks get out of jail in exchange for cocaine and other drugs.

Disgraced Public Transport Victoria boss Barry Wells.

Former Victorian Education Department boss Nino Napoli.

The operation that uncovered Dieni’s crimes also led to at least 20 others being charged with a range of offences.

Former Victoria University employee Kamaljeet Kaur Gill was also jailed after an investigation into the misappropriation of over half a million dollars of university funds.

She cashed out more than $614,000 in fraudulent gift cards.

Essentially, any IBAC work of significance, or at least public notoriety to date, has revolved around greedy bureaucrats stealing public cash.

Despicable and wrong, but always self serving and greedy.

Operation Watts, which begins Monday, is different. The public hearings will examine allegations that Victorian public officers, including MPs, rorted the system by directing taxpayer-funded staff to perform party-political work.

It will also probe allegations that public money intended to fund community associations was misused for party political work or other improper purposes.

But make no mistake, the corruption here is not about money. It’s all about power.

And the allegations in the race for power inside the ALP suggest that for years there has been a very real attitude of anything goes, the end always justifies the means.

Former Labor MP Adem Somyurek. Picture: Tony Gough

Michael Symons, the former head of investigations with NSW’s IBAC equivalent, ICAC, said corruption could survive as long as there was a mutual interest in keeping it hidden.

“If the outcome is achieved – both parties are happy. Even if the outcome is not achieved, it is highly unlikely the ‘losing’ party will complain to the authorities.’’

That is of course, until such time that one of those parties has nothing left to lose.

After being sacked as a minister and expelled from the ALP last year former Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek has nothing left to lose. The fact allegations of his branch-stacking activities launched Operation Watts is a big problem for the government.

If anyone knows where the political bodies inside Labor are buried, it’s him. And with plenty of scores to settle, he could blow the lid on a culture of corruption.

Already he has accused Daniel Andrews of branch stacking, telling parliament last year that the Premier was engaged in such activities as early as the 1990s.

But it’s not just the Premier in the firing line.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is in the firing line. Picture: Darrian Traynor

Several senior and long-serving government MPs are expected to be caught up in public hearings in coming weeks.

The fact IBAC can’t lawfully start an investigation until it reasonably suspects corrupt conduct constituting a serious offence has occurred, is a sign of almost certain trouble ahead for the government.

That is of course if IBAC’s powers allow it to properly and fully investigate all allegations before it.

There’s a particular irony in the fact that it’s the Andrews government coming under scrutiny in the first real test of IBAC’s political muscle.

It was the same team that went to the 2014 election with a commitment to overhaul the commission after it was plagued by major delays and budget blowouts.

Promising to “put some fangs into the toothless tiger”, it did just that, introducing reforms in 2016 that expanded IBAC’s powers.

In hindsight, it might have wished it hadn’t.

— Shannon Deery is Herald Sun state politics editor

Originally published as Shannon Deery: Operation Watts the first real test of IBAC’s political muscle