The Victorian Greens have secured a significant integrity reform today, legislating a non-government chair and majority for one of Parliament’s most powerful committees.
The Parliament today passed the Greens amendment to the Parliamentary Standards and Workplace Integrity Bill 2024 which legislates that the chair and majority of the powerful Integrity and Oversight Committee must be independent from government.
Last year, the Greens secured commitments from the government to have a non-government chair and majority of the Integrity and Oversight Committee during this term, but by securing this change in legislation, it means the Chair of this committee will stay in non-government hands into the future, and ensure that after the next election governments can’t go back to marking their own homework.
Unfortunately both Labor and the Liberals voted against further Greens amendments to remove government control of the important Budget estimates process, which is designed to scrutinise Government Budgets and spending, but is deeply ineffective in Victoria due to being government-controlled.
As stated by the Leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell:
“When it comes to scandals, corruption and integrity measures, Governments should not be allowed to investigate themselves. That’s why the Greens’ win today is so significant.
“We’ve seen scandal after scandal here in Victoria. Clearly Victoria’s integrity and anti-corruption measures are not up to scratch.
“The Greens’ win today is an important first step in fixing Victoria’s broken anti-corruption system, and we’ll continue to push for even more reform.”
As stated by the Greens spokesperson for integrity, Tim Read:
“We need non-government chairs and majorities on these powerful parliamentary committees in order to properly hold the government to account.
“Government control of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee greatly limits the extent to which non-government MPs can question ministers about their spending, so it’s deeply disappointing to see Labor and the Liberal party joining together to vote against fixing this. “
