Victoria corruption probes to be private

CANBERRA - After years of gang warfare, bent police and public officials, and a rising public clamour, Victoria will finally establish a commission to root out corruption in the state.

The decision to follow the recommendations of a report handed to Premier John Brumby this week comes as Victoria prepares for a state election that opinion polls indicate will be a neck-and-neck race between the main parties.

The move will bring Victoria into line with every other state except South Australia, which continues to resist calls to set up a specialist corruption-busting body.

It also represents a backflip by Brumby, who, like his predecessors, had until this week steadfastly rejected the creation of a commission to investigate allegations of corruption against police, parliamentarians, judges and public officials.

Brumby had maintained that the existing system - including the Office of Police Integrity and an Ombudsman with extended powers - were sufficient to contain corruption.

But pressure had mounted, especially after the gangland wars, the murder of former crime tsar Carl Williams in a maximum security cell in April, and the collapse of OPI criminal proceedings against former assistant police commissioner Noel Ashby and former police union chief Paul Mullett.

Brumby's decision to act followed the report of a review of the state's integrity bodies led by a former senior public servant, Elizabeth Proust, whose views on the inadequacy of present arrangements changed his mind.

"My personal view has always been against the establishment of [an anti-corruption commission]," Brumby said. "On balance, I have been persuaded."

But while the decision has been made to establish the commission, its shape remains in some doubt.

If Brumby wins the election, he will create a commission that will be designed to tighten oversight of the police and for the first time expose MPs to independent scrutiny.

The new Victorian Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission will absorb the OPI and the Ombudsman, incorporate the office of the auditor-general, and be given wide powers of surveillance and telephone and electronic interception, and be able to compel witnesses to attend hearings and answer questions.

As well as police and MPs, it will be able to investigate public servants, the judiciary and local councillors.

Overseen by a joint parliamentary committee, it will include a parliamentary integrity commissioner to handle complaints against MPs, a judicial commission to cover the courts, and public sector and police integrity commissioners.

But the powers of the Ombudsman, whose office will be retained, will be reduced, and the commission's hearings will be held in private to limit the potential damage to witnesses called before it.

"One of the least attractive aspects of some other jurisdictions is the public circus that occurs [during their hearings]," Proust's report said.

The decision to hold hearings in private, and the complex structure of the new commission, have been attacked by critics including the Opposition, which supports its creation but which may make changes if it wins the election.

Deputy Police Commissioner Sir Ken Jones welcomed the decision, which he said would strengthen the checks and balances of the fight against corruption.