The government’s national anti-corruption commission could be operational by the middle of next year, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said this morning.
Dreyfus told RN Breakfast that the government planned to present the commission’s legislation to parliament before the end of the year and hoped that staff appointments and other set-up tasks could be done early next year, allowing works begin in mid-2023..
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus Credits: Alex Ellinghausen
“We now have a working group of senior officials, led by the Deputy Secretary, fully dedicated to ensuring that we legislate a national anti-corruption commission this year,” Dreyfus told RN Breakfast.
“All of the department’s resources are now devoted to drafting the best bill we can present to the Australian Parliament. There are a whole host of features that have obviously been discussed over the last three years, many in response to the inappropriate model proposed by the old government.
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“The commission will be independent, it will be powerful, it will have the powers of the royal commission. Some of the controversial issues we have discussed are the scope of the commission. It will deal with serious and systemic corruption, receive complaints from a wide range of sources and, at its discretion, hold public hearings. ”
Dreyfus added that he would not set a time limit on the extent to which the commission could step back in processing cases.
“I will not put limits on this commission, it is independent,” Dreyfus said. “It simply came to our notice then. The further back, the less likely there is a public interest in the future, we have seen that with Royal Commissions, the further back, the more difficult it is to investigate. “