Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has unveiled the national anti-corruption commission (ACCC) amid warnings from the opposition that sweeping powers could result in a “show trial.”
Having cleared the bill at the party caucus on Tuesday, the Labor government will pour in $262 million (US$170 million) over four years to establish and operate the Commission, which will have broad jurisdiction to investigate “serious or systemic” corruption across the federal public sector.
Allegations of corrupt conduct by ministers, parliamentarians and their staff, statutory officer holders, employees of all government entities and government contractors will be under the microscope, with no limit to how far back in time it is.
In a contentious move, the anti-corruption watchdog will have the power to hold public hearings in “exceptional circumstances and where it is in the public interest to do so,” the prime minister said on Tuesday.
It will also be able to investigate corrupt conduct by a third party deemed to have adversely affected the honesty or impartiality of a public official’s conduct.
“People should be afraid if they’ve been engaged in corrupt activities,” Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said on Tuesday.
“But the question of how the commission decides which matters are to be investigated, how it will devote its resources — which are not limitless — that will be a matter for the commission to decide.”
Concerns that Public Hearings Could People’s Reputation at Risk
Dreyfus told parliament on Monday that public hearings “raise questions about reputational harm, which are not faced when you hold private hearings, and that’s why most of these commissions’ work has been done in private.”This distinguishes Labor’s corruption commission model from the Liberals’ model in 2021, which would not host public hearings, investigate tip-offs from the public or publish public findings.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been cautious about the potential for public hearings turning into “show trials” or “protracted investigations.”
“I don’t want people’s lives destroyed,” he told ABC’s Four Corners Program on Sep. 23, “I’m not interested in something which is titillating for the media, but ultimately not good for democracy in this country.”
“I don’t like the fact that some of these investigations go on for years and people arent’s cleared. It’s a denial of justice in that circumstance.”
But the left-wing Greens party pushed for a lower bar for public hearings, with Greens justice spokesperson arguing that “sunshine is a great disinfectant.”
The NACC will be overseen by a statutory Parliamentary Joint Committee, and only the commission’s leaders can decide if the conduct is considered “serious or systemic” enough to investigate.
It will operate independent of government and have significant discretion to launch inquiries on its own initiative or in response to referrals, including from whistleblowers and the public.
The legislation is expected to be passed by the end of this year.
