Scott Morrison is right to be concerned about a federal ICAC

Having first promised a federal integrity commission in 2018, the government has struggled to explain just what is taking it so long. The prime minister has every reason to be concerned about a federal anti-corruption body. His closest political allies would likely be the first to draw the attention of any new cop on the beat.

Off all the 151 members of the house of representatives, arguably none has been as scandal prone as Stuart Robert the member for Fadden. The Queensland MP and minister for the NDIS plus social services, happens to be not only a close political ally of the prime minister but also a personal friend. The pair share their Pentecostal faith and are also Canberra flatmates.

Any competent commissioner would surely want to know about why Robert’s parents were listed as the directors of his company Robert International for six years. Extraordinarily when contacted by Fairfax media Alan Robert said he and his wife were unaware of being appointed director of the company. Then there was the time Robert claimed a 38 000 bill for his home internet expenses. The justification for this was ‘connectivity issues’. Now as minister for government services Robert is in charge of cracking down on Centrelink fraud. In 2016 Roberts was involved in a donations scandal. It appears that he used his ministerial office to lobby a Chinese government minister on behalf of a friend and Liberal Party donor. He also appeared before the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission in connection to a possible breach of local government electoral laws.

In case you are wondering this really is the record of just one man. In the race to be Australia’s dodgiest MP Robert has comfortably fended of strong competition from his national’s colleagues Barnaby Joyce, George Christensen (the Member for Manila) and Bridget ‘sports rorts’ McKenzie.

Another cabinet minister with serious questions to answer whose star has risen in tandem with Morrison’s is Angus Taylor. Taylor founded Cayman Islands based company Eastern Australia Irrigation which received a massive windfall when the commonwealth massively overpaid for a water allocation, courtesy of one Barnaby Joyce who as water minister had to sign off on the deal.

Taylor has also been caught in two high profile lies designed to impugn the reputation of others. On the basis of a fake document he claimed Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moor spent the astronomical sum of 15 million dollars on air travel. The Daily Telegraph was actually daft enough to run a story on the basis of this implausible claim, making its editors possibly the most credulous people in all of Sydney. The other lie was the claim made in Taylors maiden speech to parliament that prominent writer Naomi Wolf had lived down the hall from him at oxford and had participated in an attempt to ban Christmas trees. Naomi Wolf’s time at Oxford was not concurrent with Mr Taylors. These lies may seem less significant than conflicts of interest involving millions of dollars. But his willingness to trade in what should be clearly fraudulent information is a major red flag about his trustworthiness.

After a long period when the news cycle was dominated with issues of public malfeasance, the Australia Post scandal presented a political opportunity for the prime minister. The scandal involves the senior executives at the publicly owned corporation being given luxury watches worth 20,000 dollars as a performance reward. In parliament the prime minister declared himself shocked and appalled and boasted that the decision to ask chief executive Christian Holgate to stand down had been taken quickly. But if this was the case why was he not similarly shocked by the expenses abuses of his good friend Mr Roberts? And why did it take so long for the prime minister to have Bridget McKenzie stand down over the sports rorts affair? There are still questions about how much the prime minister knew regarding sports rorts affair given his office was in close contact with Mrs McKenzie’s office, including exchanging the controversial colour coded spreadsheet 15 times.

Every ascension to the highest office brings with it a reshuffling of choice positions in the government. Scott Morrison is no different in facilitating the promotion of a number of MP’s who are known to be close to him. However, it is a fact that some of these rising stars are among the most ethically compromised MP’s in the house. Where an integrity commission to be legislated and promptly start digging in to the dodgy dealings of Taylor and Robert the reputational cost to Morrison and the government will be huge, so it is not surprising they are not keen on the idea. Even a severely neutered commission with its powers strictly curtailed would be a huge risk.

The 46th parliament is not scheduled to expire until the 1st of July 2022 so the coalitions failure to implement an integrity commission will likely come under scrutiny during that time. Anthony Albanese recently promised that if elected labour will implement and integrity commission. However, the opposition is yet to produce a detailed proposal or a timeframe. The prime minister faces increasing pressure to act on an issue which enjoys broad popular support but to do so could come at a huge cost to himself.