Victoria’s corruption watchdog should be better funded, opposition says

Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog should be better funded to tackle integrity issues in government, the state’s opposition says.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

Victoria’s state opposition has called for the state’s anti-corruption watchdog to be better funded, and recommitted to boosting it’s coffers should it secure government come November.

It comes after a property developer – John Woodman, who is at the centre of corrupt land deal allegations – said a royal commission should be called into the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption commission.

IBAC has spent three years investigating City of Casey councillors over accusations that planning and property decisions were influenced by developers.

Mr Woodman has called for a royal commission into IBAC, blaming Operation Sandon for the death of his friend and former Casey mayor Amanda Stapledon.

He said IBAC “brutality” drove Stapledon to take her life. She died three days after IBAC sent her a draft report that contained evidence she did not declare a $25,000 political cam­paign donation.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said a royal commission into IBAC was unnecessary. “The anti-corruption commission has an oversight body which works well. What the anti-corruption commission needs is extra money to do its job,” he said.

“I’ve committed to give it quite a bit of money, $10m in the first instance and another $10m to follow to do it’s job … It needs more money to do its job because this Premier has taken money away that should have gone to it. I will make sure that money, $20m, goes to the commission.”

Mr Woodman has delayed ­the tabling of the Operation Sandon report after he launched legal action claiming the agency was yet to hand over about 20 per cent of footnotes that reveal evidence to back assertions in the draft report.

On Thursday, Mr Guy said he believed the reports were being held up by people who were mentioned in them.

Operation Sandon interviewed Premier Daniel Andrews about his alleged association with Mr Woodman in a private hearing, while other witnesses – including Stapledon – were questioned in public.

Mr Woodman insisted Mr Andrews never called him about a piece of industrial land in Casey, known as C219, which he was trying to have rezoned for residential development.

Months from a state election, Mr Guy questioned why the Operation Sandon report was yet to be released. “You have to ask yourself why are these reports being held up from being released just before the state election when many of them involve issues deeply around the probity and integrity of the state government.”