The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has been urged to beef up Labor’s integrity commission proposal with calls to protect whistleblowers and lower the bar for investigations.
Details shared by Dreyfus in confidential roundtables on the design of the anti-corruption body on Wednesday have confirmed concerns some reforms proposed in the crossbench bill will be omitted, although its architect, independent MP Helen Haines, is mostly satisfied with progress.
Transparency stakeholders want a guarantee the body will have budgetary independence, with more funding than the $100m over four years set aside by the Coalition, and measures to ensure the government of the day cannot cut it.
Labor plans to introduce a bill for a national integrity commission as early as the September sitting of parliament, conduct a short inquiry through a joint select committee, and push to pass the bill this year.
According to Labor’s policy, the body will be able to investigate “serious and systemic corruption”, a threshold some including the Centre for Public Integrity believe should be lowered to “serious or systemic”.
Although the commission can prioritise conduct that is both serious and systemic, the fear is the threshold for an investigation must be lower because the commission will have insufficient information when it receives a tip to judge if misconduct is systemic.
While most approved of the body’s proposed broad jurisdiction to investigate commonwealth politicians and public servants, the Centre for Public Integrity wants its power extended to investigating those seeking to corrupt them, such as private contractors.
In meetings with crossbench MPs and transparency experts, Dreyfus indicated that reforms including a judicial commission to investigate judges’ conduct and a parliamentary standards bill would follow the integrity commission.
Some were heartened by that commitment, while others were concerned about a lack of a clear timetable to legislate them and the wasted opportunity to do them at the same time.
Other features of the crossbench bill – including a whistleblower protection commissioner, a mandate to proactively prevent corruption and a civic engagement function – are not included in Labor’s seven design principles.
Dreyfus has told crossbench MPs the commonwealth would improve protections for whistleblowers, but had not committed to a separate commissioner to enforce them.
Last week Dreyfus told Radio National’s Law Report it was important to make “the rules clearer as to how you can complain, making sure that it is clear who you should complain to and what protections are available”.
Some stakeholders want the integrity commission be set up as an office of the parliament, giving it budgetary independence from the government of the day.
New South Wales and Victoria have similar guarantees of budgetary independence, and Queensland has said it will move to do the same after the Coaldrake public service review.
Despite the suggested improvements, Labor’s seven design principles largely fulfil independents’ wish-list for an integrity commission, and a bill is rated a good prospect to pass parliament without substantial amendment, which would require the Coalition to push for changes.
Elements of Labor’s plan that were broadly approved included the ability to take referrals from the public, parliamentary oversight and the power to investigate past conduct and to issue public reports. Dreyfus is to meet crossbench senators to discuss the reforms on Thursday.
An integrity expert, Griffith University professor AJ Brown, told Guardian Australia the Albanese government had a “historic opportunity” to legislate the integrity commission and related reforms.
“It’s great the government have given such a high priority to this reform,” he said, praising the fact that many elements the Coalition found controversial in the design of the body had been “brought back into proportion” under the new government.
Brown said it “remains to be seen” whether Labor’s proposal would be as comprehensive as the one proposed by the crossbench.
