Malcolm Turnbull’s gift of $440 million to a small charity run by Business Council members and finance and fossil fuel industry heavy hitters demonstrates just how badly we need a federal misconduct and corruption body.
With the government stonewalling on attempts to find out more information about the circumstances of the gift — and it is literally a gift — to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) and the chair and other senior members of the charity board refusing to appear before an inquiry into the matter, voters have only been able to learn about the handout via the slow process of Senate estimates and, now, a Senate inquiry in which Labor and Greens senators have pursued foundation staff.
The likes of Kristina Keneally and Peter Whish-Wilson have done a good job but ultimately they are engaged in a partisan inquiry. A genuinely independent inquiry by someone without an agenda to score political points is needed, if only because of the sheer scale of the handout and the involvement of the Prime Minister himself. That can only be provided by a federal Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) — which, incidentally, the Greens have been calling for for years. Labor endorsed the idea — finally — at the start of last year.
Apart from its independence, a federal body — with adequate powers — would also have the advantage of being able to summon Turnbull, Frydenberg and GBRF chair John Schubert to a hearing; while a Senate inquiry could eventually compel Schubert, House of Representatives members only attend Senate inquiries if they want to and Turnbull is likely to share Paul Keating’s lack of interest in “slumming it” before a committee — possibly correctly, if you value the prerogatives of the directly elected house.
Nor can the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) summon anyone — elected or not. Its powers are restricted to examining documents — and in any event you could probably write the ANAO’s conclusions about Turnbull’s handout without the effort of audit — how there was no overall program design, how there was no contestability in determining who should receive funding, how there were no clear goals in relation to the funding, no performance indicators devised, no examination of the recipient’s capacity to meet those goals, no evaluation process determined prior to allocation — all the ways that sound like bureaucratic jargon but are actually central to how a government hands money to external parties to do things in a way that minimises the risks of political interference, delivery failure and taxpayers getting less value for money than they should.
My guess is that the handout involves no illegality or misconduct — but ticks every single one of these boxes for how not to allocate taxpayer money, and could serve as the best How-Not-To example for the ANAO since the Regional Rorts affair. Having had some experience in grants, procurement and probity within government, it’s certainly the worst case of administrative integrity I’m aware of since Michael Wooldridge and the MRI machines.
A federal misconduct body would also be able to partly deal with the problems around Labor MP Emma Husar, who faces accusations not merely relating to her treatment of staff but her use of parliamentary resources. The government established an independent parliamentary expenses authority last year in the wake of the resignation of Sussan Ley; such a body could be rolled into a federal ICAC. Rather than an internal party inquiry into Husar — via which her opponents have distributed damaging claims, including entirely fabricated salacious allegations against her that have been circulated by the media — the claims relating to misuse of resources should have been immediately referred to an ICAC body. Ditto Barnaby Joyce (about whom, to date, no misuse of entitlements or expenses has been demonstrated).
A federal misconduct body won’t prevent misconduct, rorting and criminality. As New South Wales MP Daryl Maguire has shown, not even the NSW ICAC deters some politicians from behaving in egregious fashion. The point is to give voters — who are increasingly convinced the political system works in the interests of the powerful, not themselves — the comfort that politicians must face genuine and independent accountability for their actions. Beyond questions about Turnbull’s handout or lurid media claims about Emma Husar, this is the compelling issue in a polity where voters are growing increasingly disaffected.
Would you support the formation of a federal ICAC? Send your thoughts and comments to boss@crikey.com.au.
Hussar has referred her expenses stuff to the appropriate authority for investigation. Other than that, leaving aside the smutty stuff Buzzfeed published yesterday, we simply have accusations that she is a terrible boss.
Maybe she is, in which case she should be made to pay reparations to her staff and be given a stern talking to by her betters.
If a man like Joyce can, in the course of exercising his power, bed a staff member and bother several others including significant rural females and dtill manage to slink off to the back bench then Hussar can not be sacked for asking staff to walk her dog or for being a bit of a turd.
How about any of the following scenarios. Look to the factions in the NSW Branch of the ALP for this leaking or Buzzfeed’s been got or there’s some other kind of plant in Husar’s office. Also why isn’t the dept of finance involved. The Joyce entertainment was all of his own making but this saga stinks to high heaven for all kinds of reasons. Some really deep investigative journalism would be just the ticket; leaving it up to Alice and Buzzfeed’s not good enough, they appear biased and are not up to it.
The difference in how Husar is being treated, as compared to Cash (who has seen 12 Staffers resign in under a year, & whose office is now under investigation by the DPP) & Joyce (who had an affair with his staffer, used his position to gain plum new jobs for his girlfriend, & who almost certainly misused taxpayer funds to meet with his girlfriend) merely exposes how deeply biased the Public Service & Mainstream Media have become. What we see here is a massive Liberal-National Party Protection Racket.
As well as an ICAC, a new Labor government would be advised to do a clean sweep of the uppermost echelons of the APS, the AFP, the DPP & the ABC……..followed by a very arms length appointment of new blood, preferably merit based. Failure to do so before was Rudd’s biggest mistake back in 2007-08.
To date Husar is not being investigated by a corrupted/co-opted/complicit PS – it is an internal ALP enquiry.
As to why it is the NSW branch conducting it, she being a Federal MP, that is purely so that bumBoil Shlernt can play Sgt Schultz and claim “I know nothing!” whereas AA said it was well known at the last annual conference.
Big call on krudd’s failure to shove a fire hose into the PS being his biggest mistake – that is a bloody long list to ponder.
What’s your insulting moniker for Turnbull? I don’t understand the Shorten one, is it malice, humour or bias that induces you to use it? My guess is malicious bias, a double bunger that goes off with a ‘resounding tinkle’
of course there should be a Federal ICAC with coercive powers to investigate, and refer for criminal prosecution or parliamentary and voter sanction, corruption in politics, and it should be linked in the public mind with the abolition of section 44 of the Constitution by journalists and commentators less obsessed with sex, religion and race, and more with draining the swamp of politics. A genuinely free press would campaign to remove the dopey 19th century rules in section 44 that have failed comprehensively since Federation to lay a finger on politicians rorting the Treasury and polluting public values, and succeeded only in excluding half the population from standing for Parliament by convincing voters that politicians are just lazy with their paperwork and dual citizens are a threat to Australia (like Andrew Bolt and Rupert Murdoch?). Abolish section 44 and translate the provisions that are supposed to govern political corruption into modern, world-class anti-corruption legislation that establishes a Federal ICAC as its central plank.
There is a definite need for a independent body, perhaps it should be formed largely from existing departments budgets and staff pool to a degree. Governance, reportage and oversight of a federal ICAC is whats most important, it should publicaly demonstrate neither fear or favour and refer for prosecution when required.
Wow, you’ve outdone yourself with the false equivalency on this one Bernard by putting Emma Husar’s actions on the same level as Malcolm’s clearly dodgy ‘gift’ of half a billion dollars to a charity run by his mates.