What will change with the introduction of a Commonwealth Integrity Commission?
How things currently work
- At the moment, corruption within different parts of the public sector is monitored by a range of agencies.
How things will work under the new body
- The new system will include what Attorney-General Christian Porter says been missing - a single, specialist peak body to investigate criminal corruption in the public sector.
- It will be a bigger version of an existing anti-corruption agency, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI).
The commission currently monitors the Australian Federal Police, financial intel authority AUSTRAC, the Department of Home Affairs and some parts of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.
- Under the changes, ACLEI will be split into two divisions, one focused on law enforcement and the other on the rest of the public sector.
- The law enforcement division will do ACLEI's current work, but also be able to investigate the Australian Tax Office, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.
- The public sector division will cover all government departments and agencies and their staff, along with federal politicians and their staff. It will also cover providers and recipients of commonwealth funds, including those involved in the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
How will the news commission work?
- The commission will investigate situations referred to it by the existing anti-corruption agencies.
- It will have serious investigative powers to build briefs against people, which will then be handed to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
- The law enforcement division will be able to hold both public and private hearings. The public sector division will only be able to hold private hearings.
- It won't be retrospective.
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