Corrupt government declares moot anti-corruption watchdog

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Via The Guardian:

Christian Porter has given a strong indication the Coalition will not set up a federal independent commission against corruption, telling Labor there is no “persuasive evidence” that current methods of tackling corruption are insufficient.

The attorney general has written to his Labor counterpart, Mark Dreyfus, arguing that the establishment of a national integrity commission “may not be the most effective or efficient option”, suggesting any possible reforms will fall well short of an anti-corruption body with broad-ranging powers.

In January Labor promised to establish a national integrity commission, putting pressure on Malcolm Turnbull, who did not rule out following the opposition’s lead but asked Porter to conduct consultations.

In March, Porter told Guardian Australia the government was investigating various options to strengthen anti-corruption efforts, including combining some existing bodies’ functions.

In a letter to Dreyfus dated 10 May responding to Labor’s offer of bipartisan cooperation, Porter said the government was committed to “ensuring the federal integrity framework is as robust as possible”.

…Anti-corruption commissions are different to crime-fighting bodies because they function like standing royal commissions, with powers to compel testimony, and have an investigative role before charges have been laid by prosecutors.

We can’t have an independent watchdog sniffing around Chinese bribes or MP’s doing the bidding of industry lobbies now can we?

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.