Christian Porter confirms Turnbull government was working to beef up the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Scott Morrison has dismissed a federal integrity commission as a “fringe issue” but the government was working to convert the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity into an anti-corruption body before the leadership change.

Government sources have told Guardian Australia a cabinet submission outlining the finalised model was being worked up recommending that the ACLEI be converted into a federal integrity commission with two wings – one for law enforcement agencies and the other for public servants and politicians – in the weeks before the conservative-led strike against Malcolm Turnbull.

On Tuesday the attorney general, Christian Porter, effectively confirmed he was developing that option before the leadership change, telling Radio National it was “no secret” an anti-corruption body was the subject of a cabinet process he had been working on for six months.

The structure of the proposed organisation was to have a new integrity commissioner oversee two deputies: one covering law enforcement and one covering the public sector, with powers designed to target corruption in the two sectors.

Sources said Turnbull had agreed on that model with Porter in August. Porter said that was “certainly one logical model”, but refused to say whether it was still his preferred approach.

Porter said reforming the ACLEI was the “logical place to start” to improve anti-corruption functions because it was “the peak agency” that dealt with integrity issues at the commonwealth level.

“Its mandate at the moment is to look at integrity and corruption issues inside that part of the civil service, the public service, that deals itself with law enforcement and has powers that are significant in terms of the reach and the ability to intercept telecommunications and coercively obtain documents.”

Porter said reforming corruption functions was not the “first and foremost priority” of the government.

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The Australian Public Service Commission 2018 census, released on Monday, revealed that 4,395 federal public servants believe they had witnessed corrupt behaviour in the past year.

The most commonly witnessed forms of perceived corruption were preferential treatment of friends, relatives or favoured companies, and acting with an undisclosed conflict of interest.

The APSC report states that 78 public servants were investigated for corruption last financial year, with 72 found to have breached the code of conduct.

On Monday the attorney general, while objecting to a bill prepared by the Victorian independent Cathy McGowan, told reporters the government had “never ruled out significant reform in this area”.

That followed the Morrison government waving through a motion in support of a new federal anti-corruption body to avoid an embarrassing defeat on the floor of the House of Representatives on day one of minority government.

The issue was forced by the lower-house crossbenchers, with a Senate motion coming to the House of Representatives for concurrence, and with McGowan bringing forward a private member’s bill to create an anti-corruption body.

With some government MPs signalling internally they would support the motion, the government allowed it to pass the House on the voices.

With the crossbench emboldened, and the government’s command of the House weakened by the loss of Turnbull’s Sydney seat of Wentworth, Porter met with McGowan on Monday morning. The attorney general has been in dialogue with the Victorian independent for weeks.

But Porter contends McGowan’s substantive proposal is deeply flawed.

He warned that having “retrospective application of an incredibly low definition of corruption, with the application of the most severe enforcement and compulsive powers including the effective abrogation of the longstanding right in Australia of legal professional privilege, under the model that was put before the house today, would be a terrible step backwards”.

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“If the point is to enhance public confidence in Australian politics creating a body with such an incredibly low definition of corruption with massive coercive powers … would simply invite the politicisation of complaints of corruption.”

“You would invariably get point scoring, political agendas being run and public advocacy on political issues put before a body of this type under the guise of complaints of corruption because the standard, the definition of corruption is so low.”

Porter told reporters on Monday there were 13 bodies and agencies dealing with integrity and corruption issues at a national level, and “at the centre of that very complicated matrix is the Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity”.

He said: “That body is in effect Australia’s national integrity commission.”

Porter said the questions to be resolved were adequacy of the agencies and the level of overlap and duplication. He said “whether the powers in individual agencies are appropriate, or whether or not one particular agency should be merged with other agencies or should have its jurisdiction changed are all live and real questions under this debate about integrity models at the federal level”.

Morrison’s language in the House on Monday was more tepid. When asked to articulate his position on an Icac-style body, the prime minister said: “We are not opposed.” He did, however, say there was a cabinet process underway.

McGowan told Guardian Australia she would continue to work with the government to get an outcome. “I’m hopeful if we can keep the pressure up we’ll get some movement,” she said.

Labor has been pushing a corruption watchdog since January, and the Coalition initially telegraphed some interest.

In March, Porter told Guardian Australia the Coalition was considering “detailed models” for the reform, including possibly strengthening and combining some existing bodies.

But Porter said in May that there was there was no “persuasive evidence” that current methods of tackling corruption were insufficient.