This briefing paper was produced on 14th of October 2014 to assist parliamentary debate on the IBAC amendments otherwise known as ‘The Integrity Legislation Amendment Bill 2014’. The researcher, Parliamentary Librarian Catriona Ross writes,
“This Research Brief provides background information on the establishment of the IBAC and Victoria’s current integrity framework, stakeholder responses to the IBAC legislation, and an overview of the special report published by the IBAC after its first year in operation. “
From ART’s perspective the most interesting section is the stakeholder views, found on Page 19 to 21. There is a great unanimity of critical position amongst the three stakeholders cited, even though to the best of our knowledge their critique was independently arrived at, other than Colleen Lewis is a member of ART.
The key aspect found wanting is the conferral of the power to coerce evidence of corrupt conduct in preliminary investigations . This means the threshold for investigation is almost impossible to meet.
ART has argued that the thresholds that restrict investigations particularly of parliamentarians should be removed.
The paper, “Research Brief: Integrity Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 “ can be found here.