The Victorian Parliament voted down reforms that would allow the state’s anti-corruption watchdog, IBAC, to ‘follow the dollar’ in the construction industry and investigate corruption by private contractors and third parties in dealing with public funds.
Following the Bill’s passage through the Legislative Council, with support from the Greens, the coalition, and the crossbench, the Labor dominated Legislative Assembly voted down this proposal. This is the second time such a motion has been brought before it.
Robert Redlich KC, former IBAC Commissioner and a director of the Accountability Round Table, said:
“In the wake of the Watson report into the CFMEU and IBAC’s advice to the government in 2024 that it does not have the power, it is incomprehensible why a government would continue to block legislation that would bring transparency and accountability to the construction industry, reforms that Victorians have been demanding for years. What makes today’s vote particularly perplexing is that the Government’ resistance flies in the face of a broad consensus among integrity experts and legal bodies, to give IBAC the same powers as the NSW (ICAC) and Federal (NACC) Integrity Commissions.
Even the recommendation in December by the Parliament’s Integrity and Oversight Committee, which includes three Labor members, that IBAC be given the power to ‘follow the dollar’ has not shifted the government’s intransigence.
“The Committee recommended to the Parliament that where there is corrupt conduct by third parties and private subcontractors in dealing with public funds, IBAC must have the power to investigate. The government must embrace these desperately needed reforms.“These are not an abstract set of principles; it’s costing Victorian taxpayers real money. The ‘rotten culture’, so described by the Premier, within the construction industry has been well known for a very long time as has IBAC’s incapacity to follow public money once it flows to contractors on the Big Build — a sector that has been revealed to be rife with corruption and nepotism.”
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