By Josh Gordon
The former boss of Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog has said parliament’s key integrity committee acted without integrity and in the political interests of the Andrews government.
In an extraordinary appearance before state parliament’s integrity and oversight committee, Robert Redlich, who recently retired as commissioner of the Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, suggested a lack of political oversight meant the state potentially had a “very serious problem” on its hands.
Former IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich called for the corruption watchdog’s scope to be expanded before facing hostile questions from Labor MPs.
“If this committee is stymied at the outset because political considerations override an objective determination of things that are wrong, then it’s a very sad day if we can’t say that the integrity committee of the Victorian parliament is acting with integrity,” Redlich told the committee.
Rather than focusing on his concerns, Labor MPs on the committee instead peppered Redlich with unrelated questions, including whether he had ever bullied any of his staff. He was also asked about a termination payment outlined in the IBAC annual report, and about the timing of the release of a preliminary report for comment during the 2021 Christmas period.
“Did you ever bully anyone, as the IBAC commissioner, any of your staff?” asked Labor MP and committee member Belinda Wilson.
“I hope not,” Redlich replied.
In March, it was revealed Redlich wrote to the lower house speaker and upper house president in his final days as commissioner, claiming Labor MPs had instructed an independent auditor to “dig up dirt” on IBAC, possibly as an act of revenge for various ongoing investigations into the government.
Redlich’s appearance comes after a number of damaging IBAC investigations, including this week’s Operation Sandon report – prompted by extensive reporting in The Age – detailing how developer and consultant John Woodman dished out more than $1 million in alleged bribes to City of Casey councillors and sought to influence politicians on both sides.
Woodman held a bizarre press conference on Monday to claim the IBAC report had been full of lies, but he brushed off journalists’ questions about whether he had paid Casey councillors for favourable planning decisions.
The allegedly corrupt property developer said he wanted IBAC to stop pushing, as he put it, “fake narratives all seeking front-page media headlines, regardless of the ... devastating consequences”.
IBAC declined to comment.
John Woodman spoke to media about his claims about IBAC.Credit: Jason South
On Monday, Redlich backed his claims about Labor MPs trying to find dirt on IBAC, saying the letter had been sent late last year because of “immense frustration” among senior IBAC staff over the way in which the committee had operated last year.
“We set out the way in which the committee had conducted itself in relation to a range of issues, which regrettably showed that political issues influenced or interfered with the way in which the committee conducted itself,” he said.
“If members of parliament are not prepared to take issue with conduct of ministers, there is no form of accountability for ministers.”
Redlich used his appearance at the parliamentary committee to detail what he said had been a long decline in public integrity standards practised by public servants, politicians and their staff.
“I think we’re dealing with a fundamental problem in the way executive government operates not just in Victoria, but around Australia and in the federal environment,” he said. “And it has to be understood that this is a decline which has not just occurred today or last week or 10 years; we can go back 40 years to see where those problems started, and they’ve gone on unarrested.”
Redlich suggested last year’s Operation Daintree investigation into the awarding of contracts to a Labor-linked union on the eve of the 2018 election provided a powerful case study of why Victoria’s anti-corruption laws needed to be strengthened.
“Daintree is a particularly illuminating case for the simple reason that it shows that ... there was a failure of ministerial responsibility, that ministerial advisers grossly overstepped their role and that the department, the public servants who have now regrettably been fairly marginalised around Australia in terms of their role, did not discharge their obligations of frank and fearless advice in assisting government as to whether this particular contract should have been granted.”
Redlich said he had brought along a list of five or six key amendments to strengthen Victoria’s anti-corruption laws, but he was not given an opportunity to discuss them in detail by the upper house committee, which is made up of four Labor MPs, and a total of four MPs from the Greens, the opposition and Legalise Cannabis Victoria.
But he said the most important of these was an overly onerous definition of corruption, requiring a crime to have been committed.
He said Daintree provided a “stark example”. While it provided numerous examples of misconduct, IBAC did not believe any crime had been committed, allowing Premier Daniel Andrews to incorrectly claim that there had been “no findings” against the government, he said.
“The premier made much of the fact in his long media address to the fact that there was no crime committed,” he said. “But regrettably, and quite incorrectly, he repeatedly said there were no findings made. The whole report is about findings of misconduct.”
As reported in The Age this week, Labor MPs on the committee had opposed inviting Redlich to appear, but lost the vote following a controversial deal in March with the Greens and Legalise Cannabis Victoria under which the government relinquished control of the committee numbers.
A government spokesperson said: “We’ve delivered strong power and record funding to support IBAC in recognition of the importance of transparency and integrity in government.”
Opposition Leader John Pesutto said “Labor minions” had shamelessly attempted to discredit Redlich and silence him in a bid to cover up corruption in the government, while accusing committee members of behaving like thugs.
“Their actions should appal all Victorians who care about good government and the reputation of our state,” he said. “The behaviour of Labor MPs today tells us that not only is the Andrews government corrupt, but it will stoop to any level to stop people uncovering the truth.”
“If you stand up in Victoria and do the right thing, Mr Andrews and his government will attack you and try to silence you.“
Labor committee member Ryan Batchelor asked Redlich about a staff survey that showed about 14 per cent of IBAC employees had experienced bullying last financial year.
“Why do you think that there was such a higher level of bullying at IBAC in 21-22,” he said.
Redlich has been outspoken in his critique of the government and what he described as “soft” or “grey” corruption and “fundamental institutional failings”.
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