IBAC warns Victorian government dragging its feet on key branch-stacking reforms

More than a year since IBAC provided 21 recommendations to the Andrews government after uncovering “rampant nepotism” and other serious issues, only a fraction have been implemented.

More than a year since alarming findings were outlined after a widescale branch-stacking probe, only a few of IBAC’s 21 recommendations have been implemented by the Victorian government. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

The Andrews government has been accused of dragging its feet in implementing critical reforms following a major probe into branch-stacking within the ALP.

More than a year on from the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission’s (IBAC) and the Victorian Ombudsman’s (VO) release of their alarming findings into wide scale branch-stacking within the ALP, known as Operation Watts, Victoria’s integrity watchdog has revealed the state government is on track to implement just a fraction of the recommendations.

IBAC and the VO provided 21 recommendations to the Victorian government following findings of “rampant nepotism, forging signatures, and attempts to interfere with government grants to favour factionally aligned community organisations”.

The investigation uncovered “a compelling picture of patronage: of jobs on the public purse according to factional loyalty and as rewards for bringing in ‘the numbers’, and widespread misuse of public resources for political

purposes”.

But a joint progress report by the VO and IBAC, released today, indicates that just a handful of recommendations have been either fully or somewhat implemented.

This is despite the government committing to accept all 21 recommendations on the day the report was released more than a year ago.

It also pledged to allocate $8.52m over four years to support the Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) to roll out the recommendations.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass has also raised concerns about the lack of progress with the reforms. Picture: David Crosling

Acting IBAC Commissioner Stephen Farrow has warned that the government has failed to provide a time frame to implement the reforms. Picture: David Crosling

Ombudsman Deborah Glass and Acting IBAC Commissioner Stephen Farrow warned that while there has been “good progress in some areas”, the government has failed to provide a time frame for implementing the key reforms by June 2024, and has not consulted with either body on the provisions of any draft bill.

“DPC has assured us that the enabling legislation is being worked on, but it has not yet indicated a time frame for its introduction to parliament beyond reiterating the government’s commitment to implement key reforms by June 2024,” the report states.

“Given the usual time frame for the creation of new statutory bodies and the commitments set out above, it seems unlikely the government will meet its deadline.”

The recommendations included establishing a parliamentary ethics committee and parliamentary integrity commissioner, the creation of new offences for MPs and ministers who allow staff to undertake party-specific activities and a prohibition on the employment of family members as electorate officers.

Premier Daniel Andrews dismissed the findings in the progress report on Thursday, saying the government would provide a “substantial update” on the implementation of reforms.

“The heads of integrity agencies are not members of the cabinet and I’d just say to them with the greatest of respect there’s been a power of work done to this point,” he said.

“They’re not in a position to know what the government has done. They’re not part of the cabinet process.

“It’s not my practice to be briefing outside agencies, that are not elected, on what’s happening at Cabinet next Monday.

“We’ll have very significant updates to make quite soon.”

A department spokesperson said it was on track to introduce legislative changes to improve the state’s parliamentary integrity framework by June 2024.

As part of the changes a Parliamentary Integrity Commissioner will be established to receive and investigate complaints about possible misconduct from MPs.

The Government will also work with the parliament to establish a joint Parliamentary Ethics Committee.