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NEWS > 10 December 2005

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 Article sourced from

Australian - Australia
10 December 2005
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Push for national graft body

CORRUPTION permeates the top levels of the bureaucracy and business in Australia, with the Victorian police force ranked among the most corrupt institutions in the country.

Citing repeated "instances of corruption", federal Ombudsman John McMillan yesterday called for the creation of a national anti-corruption agency to investigate criminal activity across all states.

Despite Australia's long reputation as a clean country, ranking ninth on Transparency International's least-corrupt countries list, he said a federal anti-corruption watchdog was "an institution mysteriously lacking at the national level in Australia".

"I think most institutions are pretty well on track, but in almost every area instances of corruption just keep bubbling to the surface," he said.

"We know that complacency is not warranted, nor is it safe.
"To be complacent is to provide the opportunity for corruption to develop and for integrity to decline."

Professor McMillan was speaking at the launch of the National Integrity Systems Assessment final report, released by the Australian branch of Transparency International, an independent coalition against corruption, and a team from Griffith University.

The report identifies Victoria and Tasmania as the states whose public institutions are least monitored, and makes 21 recommendations, including the call for a national anti-corruption body.

Professor McMillan singled out the Victorian police force as one of the nation's most corrupt institutions.

"In 150 years there have been about 20 royal commissions into the police in Victoria. You have to ask why this issue keeps coming back," he said.

Former NSW drug squad detective Michael Drury, who was shot in his Sydney home in 1984 after trying to bust open a drug network, said Victoria would benefit from introducing regulatory bodies such as NSW's Police Integrity Commission.

Victoria's Ombudsman includes an Office of Police Integrity, but the state lacks separate bodies such as a police complaints authority, an anti-corruption commission and a crime commission. "Events that have taken place in Victoria in the past couple of years have been of concern," Mr Drury said.

"I would suggest the implementation in Victoria of bodies such as ICAC (the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption) and PIC would be of great benefit."

He gave his support to the 21 recommendations in yesterday's report, including the proposed federal version of ICAC.

"Sometimes it will take individuals and organisations from outside the public sector to come forward with these suggestions and recommendations and crack the whip."

The report's other recommendations include the creation of a governance review council in each Australian jurisdiction and revising the current legislation protecting whistleblowers.

"To prevent wrongdoing in government and business, and to elevate the standard of integrity in national life, we need a framework of institutions, rules and procedures that will safeguard the values that underpin integrity and public virtue," Professor McMillan said.

Frank Costigan QC, chairman of Transparency International Australia, enthusiastically supported the call for the Government to establish a national anti-corruption watchdog.

"Over the past 20 years, you have found a growing concentration of power with the executive and less accountability," he said.

 

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