Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity on its examination of the annual report of the Integrity Commissioner 2019-20, together with the Hansard record of proceedings and additional information. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

The committee thanks the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, which I will refer to as ACLEI, for a very comprehensive annual report. The committee is satisfied that ACLEI performed well against its performance criteria for the 2019-20 reporting period. Overall, ACLEI delivered positive investigative and operational results for the year despite facing several challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

The committee commends ACLEI for concluding 93 investigations, the second highest number of investigations finalised in a reporting year. The annual report highlighted that as a result of ACLEI investigations five individuals were prosecuted in 2019-20, including three former Law Enforcement Integrity Commission Act agency employees. In addition, the Visa Integrity Taskforce formerly concluded. The committee commends the joint agency taskforce for its success in relation to visas, including the investigation of 31 corruption issues in visa processing and identifying a significant number of vulnerabilities relating to visa fraud.

The annual report demonstrated that ACLEI is focused on ensuring its workload is appropriately managed and that it is focused on investigating matters of serious and systemic corruption. At the end of 2019-20, ACLEI was investigating 75 corruption matters, a sizeable reduction from previous reporting periods. Furthermore, the Integrity Commissioner, Ms Jaala Hinchcliffe, provided three final investigation reports to the Attorney-General as ACLEI continues to reduce its backlog of final investigation reports.

The Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Act 2006, the LEIC Act, requires agencies within ACLEI's jurisdiction to notify potential corruption matters. ACLEI also receives referrals of potential corruption issues from other sources. ACLEI must first assess the potential corruption issues and determine how best to manage them. It is apparent from the annual report that ACLEI is committed to reducing the time taken to complete these initial assessments to ensure serious and systemic corruption matters are prioritised. That is demonstrated by the adoption of a new target for the 2019-20 reporting period. The committee applauds ACLEI for adopting a stretch target to complete 90 per cent of assessments within 30 days of receipt. I just want to repeat that again because this is a very important point: ACLEI is now seeking to complete 90 per cent of those initial assessments, from the point in time when it gets that initial referral, within 30 days of receipt. The previous target, prior to the 2019-20 year, was a target of completing only 75 per cent of assessments within 90 days, so the target has actually become more aggressive—to complete 90 per cent of assessments within 30 days as opposed to 75 per cent within 90 days. The number of referrals to be assessed has increased, and the time period for those referrals to be assessed has decreased.

In that context, which is extraordinarily important, ACLEI reported that for the 2019-20 year it did not reach this ambitious target. It actually achieved 75 per cent of assessments in 30 days and 98 per cent of assessments within 90 days. So, again, that has to be seen in the context where the previous target was the complete 75 per cent of assessments within 90 days. For the 2019-20 year, 75 per cent of assessments were actually completed in 30 days and 98 per cent of assessments were completed within 90 days, as opposed to the previous target of completing 75 per cent of assessments in 90 days. So, whilst the annual report for 2019-20 indicates that the performance metric was not met, the performance was actually quite satisfactory, and it needs to be considered in that context. That's extremely important.

ACLEI worked closely with LEIC Act agencies throughout the year to support their investigations and corruption prevention activities. A total of 117 Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity agency investigations were completed by the end of the reporting period—a significant improvement from previous years. The committee notes that ACLEI revised its corporate plan and performance criteria during the reporting year and that it will report against the new performance measures in its upcoming annual report. The committee looks forward to reviewing ACLEI's results against the new framework.

I would like to thank the integrity commissioner, Ms Jaala Hinchcliffe, and all the staff at ACLEI for their ongoing good work addressing corrupt conduct within Australia's Commonwealth law enforcement agencies. I also thank all committee members for their contributions to the examination. In particular I'd like to mention how pleased I was to see Senator Bilyk, the deputy chair of my committee, make a contribution to a debate earlier in the day. It was quite heartwarming to see Senator Bilyk, albeit on the video screen. Mr Tony Zappia MP has certainly stepped up to the plate as the senior member from the opposition on the committee—and I've enjoyed working with him in your absence, Senator Bilyk—but he is no replacement for you. I look forward to your speedy return to this place.

Question agreed to.