Victorian Ombudsman takes swipe at Daniel Andrews’ values on integrity

Deborah Glass says the Premier’s attempt to dismiss a “damning” IBAC report into his government says a lot about his views on integrity.

Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass has taken a swipe at Premier Daniel Andrews after he sought to dismiss an alarming report into his government, saying it spoke to his values on integrity.

Speaking on 3AW on Wednesday, Ms Glass was asked about comments made by the Premier last week that a long-running probe into $3.4m awarded to a Labor-linked union was an “educational report”.

At the time, he insisted that no adverse findings had been made against anyone.

However, while the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission did not find corruption to warrant an offence, which requires a high threshold to prove, it did discover alarming behaviour.

This included “evidence of misconduct and improper influence” at the highest levels of the Andrews government, with witnesses telling the watchdog the grants “should never have been awarded” to the union.

Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass says the IBAC report is ‘damning’, not educational.

In response to Mr Andrews’ comments, Ms Glass said the report was “damning”, not educational.

“I think it says a lot about the Premier’s views on corruption and integrity,” she told 3AW.

“It was not an educational report, it was a damning report about misconduct of ministerial advisors and ministerial responsibilities for those advisors.

“It was not one I would have described as an educational report.”

Ms Glass said the standard of propriety in the state government was not good enough.

“Victoria is now a laggard, not a leader in parliamentary integrity,” she said.

“I think people rightly are concerned about that. We have fallen behind in not having enforceable standards, transparent, accountable, enforceable standards for people in public life when it falls short of that high threshold of criminal conduct.”

The Ombudsman says the standard of propriety in the state government is not good enough. Picture: David Crosling

Responding to the Ombudsman’s comments, Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said the government would consider IBAC’s report and “respond appropriately”.

“The Premier’s been very clear that the contents of the report will be well considered in Cabinet and we will make decisions and announcements in relation to that in due course,” she said.

“I watched the press conference, he thanked IBAC for their important work and we’ll give due consideration to that as a Cabinet.”

Ms Symes said the government was still considering a range of integrity reforms as part of its response to another IBAC probe, Operation Watts.

She said there would be legislation in parliament soon that responds to some of the key recommendations from that report, which included greater powers for the Parliamentary Integrity Adviser.