More reasons why establishing a federal independent commission against corruption is a good idea

The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 November 2018:

Australia is becoming more corrupt because successive federal governments have failed to create an effective national anti-corruption body similar to the NSW Independent Commission against Corruption, a leading jurist has argued.

Writing in support of a national anti-corruption body, David Harper, a former Court of Appeals justice at the Supreme Court of Victoria, noted that in 2012 Australia ranked seventh in Transparency International’s global corruption index, but that today we were ranked 13th.

“The lack of a federal anti-corruption agency remains a reason why we have never come close to being corruption-free,” he has written in an opinion piece for the Herald.

Mr Harper writes that the lack of an effective federal anti-corruption watchdog had allowed corruption to flourish undetected and, in turn, allowed federal politicians to hide behind the myth that the federal sphere is free of corruption.....

One can see Mr. Harper's point. Allegations of federal corruption regularly surface and are never fully addressed.

Take the allegations that one Liberal MP when minister borrowed money to buy into a proposed coal seam gas field (a proposal he supported in the parliament) and another Liberal minister inappropriately handed federal funding to his mates.......

ABC News, 14 November 2018:

A Northern Territory consulting company that employs Country Liberal Party president Ron Kelly was awarded more than $1.4 million through federal grants intended to tackle Indigenous disadvantage.

North Australian Remote Management Consultants (NARMCO) was given the money by Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion over a three-year period through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy and the Aboriginal Benefits Account.

The Indigenous Advancement Strategy is a $4.9 billion federal fund that was designed "to improve the way that the Government does business with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to ensure funding actually achieves outcomes".

NARMCO is not an Aboriginal-owned company, but has previously said it works with Indigenous companies.

It is unclear how the award of funds achieves the stated aims of the IAS fund.

Mr Scullion has recently faced criticism for his allocation of IAS funds, with Indigenous groups calling for an investigation into the awarding of hundreds of thousands worth of Indigenous grants to a variety of non-Indigenous groups to assist their legal opposition of land right claims.

The NT Amateur Fishermen's Association, the NT Cattlemen's Association and the NT Seafood Council received funds.

Mr Scullion told the ABC he issued NARMCO with a "show-cause notice" about how it intended to manage the perceived conflict of interest, but the company declined to comment on how it handled that and said it was following proper processes.

ASIC records show NARMCO was established by longstanding CLP member John Jansen in 2003.

According to Government records, the company received its first IAS payment in June 2015 — nine months after Mr Scullion assumed the role of Indigenous Affairs Minister.

Mr Scullion was president of the CLP until October when he was succeeded by Mr Kelly, who formerly worked as Mr Scullion's chief of staff.

Mr Kelly began working for NARMCO in February 2018.

He previously worked as former NT chief minister Adam Giles's chief of staff before being handed a lucrative role as chief executive of the NT Department of Mines and Energy in 2015.

NARMCO 'supporting regional and remote people'

NARMCO's first grant through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy was awarded in June 2015.

It received $385,000 for a 12-month project that was later amended by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to $330,000 for a 36-month project in Katherine, under the heading of "provide employee management and support".

Later in June 2015, the company received $225,000 listed as money "to provide Indigenous employment and economic development and business support services to indigenous Australians".

It was later changed to a 13-month contract from a 28-month term, which is permitted under the grant rules.

On September 13, 2017, NARMCO was again awarded $251,453 for a 10-month project in Katherine, but this time through the Aboriginal Benefits Account to "deliver outcomes by getting adults into jobs, fostering Indigenous business and assisting indigenous people".

On December 7, 2017, the company received $289,300 for "VRD Quarry Enterprises — Indigenous Business Entity Establishment" to run until June 2018.

The ABC asked Senator Scullion and NARMCO to explain how the grant money was spent for each project listed.

NARMCO said it supported "regional and remote people to establish and develop sustainable businesses and implement Indigenous employment programs", but would not release the names of which companies they worked with, citing confidentiality issues.

It said it could not comment on how it spent the money, and added that it does not distribute the funds to Indigenous companies on behalf of the Commonwealth Government.

ABC News, 31 October 2018:

The Indigenous Advancement Strategy was established in 2014 to improve employment, economic development and social participation in Indigenous communities, and has been funded to the tune of $4.9 billion.

Senator Scullion told the hearing the money would help speed up longstanding land claims in the Northern Territory by allowing non-Indigenous groups affected by the claims to submit "detriment" applications to the Aboriginal Land Commissioner.

The commissioner is due to make recommendations by the end of the year about 16 outstanding land claims which have previously been recommended for grant, but never finalised.

"I'm sure many Aboriginal people wouldn't be happy with their public money being used by third parties who are effectively trying to cease or alter an Aboriginal land claim," NLC chairman Joe Morrison told the ABC.

"I think it's a poor look."

But during the hearing, Senator Scullion rejected concerns from Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy that the funding would be used to oppose land claims.

"It is about making their position about how they use the land at the moment and about how different determinations may affect their industry in different ways," he said.

"It certainly wouldn't be about opposing land claims … this is a process about establishing what detriment they will have.

"The land commissioner can then cross-examine or question or ask for more evidence about that, but it is a requirement under the act that the land commissioner take detriment into consideration."

Funding to educate members and represent interests

Senator Scullion pointed out that the Northern Land Council had received $7.5 million in federal funding to progress the claims, and that another $1 million had gone to the land commissioner.

But Mr Morrison said AFANT, NTCA and NTSC should not have received their funding from the IAS.

"There's a process under the Land Rights Act that if people require assistance to submit detriment claims then that's dealt with by the Attorney-General's department, not by the Indigenous Affairs Minister," he said.

The Australian, 16 February 2018:

Barnaby Joyce owns land near a coal-seam gas project he promoted as resources minister, despite admitting it could be seen as a conflict of interest and pledging to sell it 4½ years ago.

The land, at Gwabegar in central NSW, is covered by the same petroleum exploration licence as Santos’s Narrabri Gas Project, which could supply up to half the state’s gas needs for the next 20 years.

Santos is seeking approval to drill up to 850 wells on 425 sites in the Narrabri project area, about 25km to the east of Mr Joyce’s land. If approved by the NSW government, the project could make way for further LNG developments in the area including, potentially, on Mr Joyce’s property.

The Deputy Prime Minister and his wife hold the land in two blocks totalling 970 hectares. They paid $230,000 for the first, on Heads Road, Gwabegar, in July 2006. They purchased an adjacent block for $342,000 in 2008.

Mr Joyce is on record as saying he didn’t realise the blocks — in The Pilliga region between Coonabarabran and Narrabri — were subject to a petroleum exploration licence when he bought them.

He told Fairfax Media before the 2013 election that he would sell the properties, acknowledging it could be “viewed as a conflict of interest”.

But the register of members’ interests, updated in January, shows he still holds the blocks.

Mr Joyce’s office told The Australian the Deputy Prime Minister was open to offers on the land, but declined to say what steps he had taken to sell it.

Real estate agents in the area said the properties were not currently listed for sale. Mr Joyce grazes cattle on the land, but locals say it is marginal farming country.

Mr Joyce advocated strongly for the project to go ahead in September last year, when, as resources minister, he and Malcolm Turnbull met with Santos and other gas companies.