By Lisa Cox, originally published in the Guardian 28 April 2021. An environmental consultant who holds interests in a property that made more than $40m selling conservation offsets to governments is part of a consortium that has made tens of millions of dollars more, Guardian Australia can reveal. Steven House is a former director of… Read More
Department secretary hirings should be robust, not reflective of ‘political loyalty’, says former PMC secretary
By Sarah Basford Canales, originally published the Canberra Times on 16th April. Coverage of our Strangling Accountability webinar with Mike Keating. Read the full story here.
Warning over political donors as minister rejects claim he favoured gas
By Mike Foley, originally published in the SMH on 12th April 2021. An anti-corruption advocate has warned political donations are undermining public confidence in plans for a gas-fired economic recovery, as Energy Minister Angus Taylor rejects an allegation he pressured an energy agency to alter its modelling to favour gas. The Centre for Public Integrity’s… Read More
Calls for urgent integrity review of public transport amid IBAC probe
By Timna Jacks, originally published in the Age 3rd April 2021. A former counsel assisting NSW’s anti-corruption watchdog has joined the Victorian opposition in calling for an urgent, wide-ranging audit of Victoria’s public transport contracts in the wake of allegations of serious corruption on Melbourne’s railways. Six months after the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission launched… Read More
Fed gas plan ignites investors, critics
By Marion Rae, originally published by the Newcastle Herald on 1 April 2021. Business leaders are being wooed to bankroll the federal government’s gas-fired recovery plan but critics argue the lack of rules or criteria make it ripe for rorting. Now under the wing of new Industry Minister Christian Porter, the plan also enlists Resources… Read More
Former corruption commissioner blasts NSW cuts to integrity agencies as ‘alarming’
By Christopher Knaus, originally published on the 25th of March 2021. A former New South Wales anti-corruption commissioner has slammed the state government’s plan to cut $14m from five key integrity agencies, describing it as “alarming”. Responses to budget estimates on Wednesday showed the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) and the NSW ombudsman both face cuts of $3.4m, while… Read More
‘Muddies the waters’: Lawyer says Porter can’t form integrity body while facing rape accusation
By Chip Led Grand, originally published on the 23rd of March in the Age. One of Australia’s most respected anti-corruption lawyers says Attorney-General Christian Porter should not have responsibility for establishing a Commonwealth Integrity Commission while he is facing an unresolved rape allegation. Former Queensland Criminal Justice Commission director Mark Le Grand said the flaws… Read More
Government views itself as an unaccountable ‘protected species’
Dr Catherine Williams is the Research Director of the CPI, this piece was originally published on the 4th of March 2021 in the Age. The maelstrom that has engulfed federal politics has left many wondering how on earth we ended up here. The allegations of sexual assaults and the failure of politicians to treat their own staff… Read More
Why Christian Porter and Scott Morrison are utterly wrong about the ‘rule of law’
By Geoffrey Watson, Director of the Centre for Public Integrity, originally published on 5th of March 2021 by the New Daily. The appeal for protection under the “rule of law” made recently by Scott Morrison and Christian Porter is not only a bad argument, it tends to undermine the rule of law. At its heart the rule… Read More
Australia’s funpark for felons leaves the nation vulnerable to hostile foreign powers
By Peter Hartcher, originally published by SMH on the 16th of February 2021. You could be forgiven for thinking that the Bergin report that damned Crown casinos last week was only about greed and crime. It was not. It’s bad enough that Crown casinos effectively had become bankers to some of the world’s worst crime… Read More