Integrity isn’t meant to be partisan

We may pay little attention to what goes on in the nation’s capital, but the latest move of the Labor Green government shouldn’t go unnoticed or uncritised, writes Miranda Devine.

Labor and the Greens have been in charge of our nation’s capital for 18 years.

The ACT has become a one party-territory. The rest of Australia mightn’t care what happens in the sleepy service town of Canberra and surrounds, but the unreality of this socialist enclave has to have an influence on the psyche of politicians.

You can see what happens to conservative Liberals once they’ve spent a few sitting weeks in Canberra. They start thinking its normal.

Well it’s not, and the most perfect example is unfolding as the ACT establishes its first integrity commission operating from July next year, which will scrutinise politicians, public servants and government contractors.

You just have to remember the shocking miscarriages of justice in our own ICAC, from NSW State Emergency Services commissioner Murray Kear to crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen, to know you should take care to ensure scrupulous fairness in both reality and perception when you to set up one of these star chambers.

The new Integrity Committee has been created, in part, thanks to ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr. Picture: Kym Smith

The Labor Greens ACT government has nominated a former Labor Party president, lawyer and activist as Integrity Commissioner to head up Canberra’s first anti-corruption watchdog.

And when the ACT Opposition cries foul, the government huffs and puffs and the local media say its an outrage.

That’s not to say that Terence Higgins is not a distinguished retired judge. But it has to matter that he was a member of the Labor Party for 27 years. He was the inaugural ACT Labor Party President and a member of the National Executive. He served as a campaign director for a Labor Member for Canberra and as a lawyer for the Party and for senior politicians, including Gough Whitlam.

In a 1986 interview with The Canberra Times, titled “The ALP’s straight-shooting law man”, Higgins was quoted saying: “One of the fundamental principles of the Labor Party and the Labor movement … that you stick by your mates … especially in times of adversity.”

The Labor Greens ACT government has nominated Terence Higgins as its Integrity Commissioner. Picture: supplied

He also derided his political opponents, “The Nationals or Country Party, or whatever name their conspiracy is called, was never viable”.

The Canberra Times wrote of Higgins: “His loyalty has never been questioned. When the party needs help — legal advice — it turns to him. Where the party is concerned, he is as yielding as a mistress.”

A friend was quoted saying that Higgins was the “golden-haired boy of people in the Labor Party who got into trouble.”

Higgins did leave the party in 1990 when he was appointed to the ACT Supreme Court by the Hawke Labor Government.

But Opposition Leader Alistair Coe quite rightly says that past presidents of any political party are not appropriate to be the Commissioner overseeing politicians and public servants.

“The inaugural Integrity Commission needs to be beyond reproach,” Coe said. “We must seek to avoid actual, potential or perceived conflicts of interest”.

You’d think that would be a no-brainer. When it comes to integrity, perception is crucial.