Robert Redlich, the outgoing chief of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) in Victoria, has called for an overhaul of parliamentary committees in the state.
In his letter to the lower house speaker and upper house president, Redlich urged the Andrews government to share power with the opposition and crossbench as part of the proposed reforms.
The opposition and Greens are now demanding the release of the letter, which contains sensitive information about alleged interference by a subcommittee of the Labor-dominated integrity committee in an independent audit of IBAC.
Redlich’s concerns centered around the Integrity and Oversight Committee, which has veto powers over the appointment of the new IBAC commissioner.
Opposition and crossbench MPs fear that the government will want to appoint a more compliant commissioner, and that Labor’s dominance of the integrity committee will make that possible.
Redlich had proposed that no single party should be allowed an overall majority on the committee, and that the chair of the integrity committee should not be from the party in government.
The changes were aimed at ensuring decisions made by the committee could not carry with them “the perception that the decision was made for a partisan reason”.
The presiding officers – lower house speaker Maree Edwards and upper house president Shaun Leane – have refused to release the letter, arguing that Redlich had written specifically to them and that the letter had been marked “sensitive”.
The opposition plans to request that Leane circulate the letter to all Legislative Council MPs next week.
The Greens have a bill before the upper house to amend the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003 to ensure that neither the chair nor more than half of the members of five key investigatory committees – including the integrity committee – are from the governing party.
The opposition unsuccessfully moved in the lower house last month to ensure that the chair of the integrity committee was not from the governing party.
The tensions between the government and IBAC have risen as the watchdog concluded potentially damaging investigations – some involving interrogations of Premier Daniel Andrews.
Government ministers and MPs have been privately critical of Redlich’s foray into the political arena, saying that the “soft corruption” he focused on was outside his jurisdiction.
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