The new federal anti-corruption body could investigate Scott Morrison and the Coalition’s sports rorts scandal, the attorney general has said, while conceding some legal experts are opposed to holding public hearings only in “exceptional circumstances”.
Mark Dreyfus said on Sunday the proposed National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) would be able to tap politicians’ phones, including encrypted apps, as long as it had a warrant. Unions would not be exempt from the commission’s ability to interrogate third parties, he added.
Labor introduced the Nacc legislation last week and it will be examined by a joint parliamentary committee.
Asked about pork barrelling and the sports grants the Coalition handed out in the lead-up to the 2019 election, Dreyfus alleged the way they were allocated “was a rort in any view”.
The National Audit Office found $100m that went to clubs in electorates the Coalition was targeting was not awarded on merit.
“I thought the idea that a decision made in the [former] prime minister’s office when he had no power over the matter, with 51 coloured spreadsheets revealed by the auditor general, that looked pretty corrupt to me,” Dreyfus told ABC TV on Sunday.
“But it won’t be my decision, it will be a matter for this independent commissioner to decide if someone refers a matter to her or him, to decide.
“I’ve been at pains to say … this is not an exercise in political payback. This is a very large integrity reform that’s been described as the single biggest reform for decades. It’s not partisan. It’s there to improve standards in Australian public life.”
One of the key issues the committee will interrogate is whether Nacc hearings should be held in public. Dreyfus defended the government’s proposal to only do so in “exceptional circumstances”.
“There are good reasons to hold public hearings,” Dreyfus said, adding there were also good reasons to hold them privately. He said legal experts were divided on the matter.
“This is us getting the balance right,” he said of the “exceptional circumstances” test.
“The key to this, firstly, is that there are to be public hearings. The second thing is the process of how an investigation is conducted. In the end, if there’s corruption discovered, the commission is going to report in public.”
The legislation states hearings will only be public in “exceptional circumstances”, which would take into account risks to an individual’s reputation and the potential public benefit. Dreyfus said the independent commissioner would weigh up the pros and cons before making a decision.
The Greens, Senate crossbenchers Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock, and independents in the lower house have raised concerns about hearings being held behind closed doors.
The federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has indicated the Coalition will support Labor’s bill, saying it had “the balance right”. The government hopes to pass the bill later this year.
The appointment of the Nacc commissioner will be an “open, merit-based process”, Dreyfus said, adding he didn’t have anyone specific in mind.
The commission will be able to tap politicians’ phones with a warrant, including potentially accessing encrypted messages.
“Everyone needs to watch out – we don’t want corrupt activity infecting our system of government,” Dreyfus said.
The commission will also be able to investigate third parties that seek to influence the government. Union officials are not excluded, Dreyfus said, describing claims they would be exempt as “untrue”.
He also flagged changes to privacy legislation before the end of the year, in the wake of the massive cyber-attack that exposed the private details of 10 million Optus customers.
“Keeping the very personal data of customers who had ceased to be customers years ago, I have yet to hear a reason why that was going on,” he said.
“Optus failed to keep the information safe. This is a wake-up call for corporate Australia.”
