Former judges and anti-corruption commissioners want body to have powers of a royal commission and far-reaching jurisdiction

A group of leading former judges and anti-corruption commissioners have released a blueprint for a federal integrity body with the investigative powers of a royal commission, far-reaching jurisdiction and strong bipartisan oversight.

An implementation plan for a federal integrity commission was on Friday released by by the Australia Institute’s national integrity committee, which features former New South Wales supreme court judge Anthony Whealy, the former NSW independent commission against corruption commissioner David Ipp, a former president of the Queensland court of appeal, Margaret McMurdo, and retired senior judges Stephen Charles, David Harper and Paul Stein.

They have called for a federal anti-corruption body with a remit to investigate “a wide range of government agencies, and those outside government attempting to corruptly influence public officials”. The body, the judges said, should have the powers of a royal commission and be able to hold public hearings enforced through “coercive powers” that could see witnesses punished for withholding evidence, misleading the commission, or bribing witnesses.

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“It’s no good setting up a body that can’t ferret out corruption,” Whealy told Guardian Australia. “If you don’t give the body that sort of powers, it will simply fail.”

The report says investigations should be able to be carried either through direct complaints, referrals from other parts of government, or through own motion investigations. A bipartisan oversight committee should be created through parliament to keep a check on the commission’s powers, and ensure it does not overreach, the report says. Only cases of “serious or systemic” corruption should be investigated, and judicial review of its decisions must be available. Private hearings also ought to take place before public hearings.

The federal integrity commission should also incorporate the existing Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and have a referral process with other existing integrity bodies at a state and federal level.

Whealy said the integrity committee had been making submissions to the federal government for five months, without success.

“The first point to make is that the Labor party have committed to essentially the implementation plan that’s been put forward,” Whealy said. “It may not be known to everybody that our committee has been attending upon, writing to, making submissions to the attorney general, Christian Porter, and I’d have to say that we’ve received what I would describe as a lukewarm response.”

Whealy said politicians tended to think of such a commission as only existing to publicly shame them for their bad behaviour. He said the body would have proper oversight and would also provide a chance for politicians to consult and take advice on integrity issues, to help protect themselves from acting improperly.

“[They] don’t see that at all, they just see it as a public unravelling of bad behaviour on their part,” he said.