Like most long-serving governments,the integrity cloud hanging over this administration has only darkened. At the November state poll,relations between Andrews and the main integrity agencies were deteriorating.
That situation worsened with theemergence of a letter from former IBAC head Redlich to parliament claiming the then Labor-dominated Integrity and Oversight Committee had sought to undermine IBAC’s work and “dig up dirt” on the agency.
Integrity experts were aghast at the lack of respect shown when Andrews said he would not respond to “someone who used to do a job[who has] written a letter that apparently says a whole bunch of stuff”. In fact,Redlich was the IBAC commissioner when he wrote the letter.
When Redlich appearedbefore the integrity committee in July hoping to identify reforms needed to improve the integrity system,he instead faced an organised grilling by Labor MPs over his time as head of IBAC,including questions about alleged bullying of staff.
Glass,the Ombudsman,has also grown unpopular with Andrews and his team,especially afterher December 2020 report into the government’s COVID-19 lockdown of North Melbourne and Flemington public housing towers. Glass found that the government had violated Victorian human rights laws,and called (unsuccessfully) on it to apologise to public tenants.
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She has been outspoken in her criticisms of Andrews’ integrity record,including over the government’s lack of action on key recommendations from her Operation Watts joint investigation with IBAC,tabled in July 2022.
This month Glass noted there had been few “signs of life” on reform,including the recommended establishment of a parliamentary ethics committee.
Labor has advanced on some integrity fronts,notably its 2016 widening of the jurisdiction of IBAC,widely regarded as a lame duck body in its original Baillieu-era form. It also introduced long-overdue reform of donation laws in 2018,which Andrews (disputably) claimed gave Victoria the toughest donations regime in the country.
In response to the furore over the Redlich letter early this year,the government also changed arrangements for the formerly Labor-dominated integrity committee,relinquishing its dominant position. The opposition and crossbench are now in majority via the new Green chair’s casting vote.
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But Andrews’ arm was forced when the opposition and Greens threatened to join forces to demand an inquiry into Labor’s alleged suppression of the Redlich letter.
As has been so often the case,when it comes to integrity Andrews seemed dragged to,rather than a champion of,reform.
Andrews has resisted action onwhat Redlich calls “soft” or “grey corruption”,like the centralisation of executive power,the growing influence of advisers and staffers,andjobs for Labor mates.
Still outstanding is government action on a raft of integrity agency and experts’ calls,including the further tightening of rules around donations and lobbying and the further widening of IBAC’s jurisdiction.
And yet to be finalised is IBAC’s Operation Richmond,which is an investigation of negotiations between the government and the United Firefighters Union. If it is ever tabled,Richmond has the potential to be the most damaging of the IBAC investigations to date.
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