At Seven:
The Morrison government has ordered an integrity watchdog to investigate allegations of corruption involving the gambling giant, Crown.
Attorney-General Christian Porter has referred allegations over Crown and government agencies to the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.
“There are sufficient concerns to warrant at least further investigations,” Mr Porter told parliament on Tuesday.
He said the government took allegations of wrongdoing seriously, particularly by members of law enforcement, immigration and customs authorities.
“They, of course as the part of the broader Australian law enforcement community, hold very privileged positions, and as such are expected to uphold the highest standards of integrity and professionalism.”
ACLEI is only able to investigate law enforcement agencies, so if wrongdoing by Crown employees is uncovered, the watchdog will refer it to federal police.
Mr Porter said the next steps were now up to ACLEI, and he would make further statements depending on its decision.
Referred to the what now? This:
The role of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) is to support the Integrity Commissioner to provide independent assurance to government about the integrity of prescribed law enforcement agencies and their staff members. The office of the Integrity Commissioner and ACLEI are established by the Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act 2006 (the LEIC Act). The Attorney-General is responsible for the administration of the LEIC Act.
The agencies subject to the Integrity Commissioner’s jurisdiction are:
ACLEI’s approach
ACLEI’s primary role is to investigate law enforcement-related corruption issues, giving priority to serious and systemic corruption.
The Integrity Commissioner must consider the nature and scope of corruption revealed by investigations, and report annually on any patterns and trends in corruption in Australian Government law enforcement and other Government agencies which have law enforcement functions. Accordingly, ACLEI collects intelligence about corruption in support of the Integrity Commissioner’s functions.
ACLEI also aims to understand corruption and prevent it. When, as a consequence of performing his or her functions, the Integrity Commissioner identifies laws of the Commonwealth or administrative practices of government agencies that might contribute to corrupt practices or prevent their early detection, he or she may make recommendations for these laws or practices to be changed.
Reporting corruption
Information about corruption comes from members of the public, members of law enforcement agencies, and from ACLEI’s own detection initiatives. The heads of the agencies in ACLEI’s jurisdiction must also notify the Integrity Commissioner of any corruption issues that arise in their agencies. Any information that indicates corrupt conduct has occurred, is occurring, or may be likely to occur, can be investigated by the Integrity Commissioner.
In addition, the Minister may request that the Integrity Commissioner conduct a public inquiry into all or any of the following:
- a corruption issue
- an issue about corruption generally in law enforcement, or
- an issue or issues about the integrity of staff members of law enforcement agencies.
ACLEI has published a pamphlet, Integrity in law enforcement, which provides general information about ACLEI and how to report corruption.
Did the Minister request that it be a public inquiry? Doesn’t sound like it. More like the oligarchs just closed ranks around the people ponzi, via The Australian:
…Greens MP Adam Bandt accused both sides of providing a “protection racket” for Crown, a claim both Mr Porter and Mr Dreyfus earlier rejected.
