Authority, sustained funding for integrity agencies to protect from government pressure.

Integrity experts, including former judges, ombudsmen and leading academics, have signed an open letter, coordinated by The Australia Institute and Fairer Future and published today in The Canberra Times, calling on the newly elected Parliament of Australia to address weaknesses in Australian political integrity.

The open letter warns that a decade of decline in agencies tasked with securing good governance has led to an integrity deficit in Australian politics and made it harder for Parliament to hold the executive government to account.

The signatories, including former IBAC Commissioner The Hon Robert Redlich AM KC, former Commonwealth Ombudsman Philippa Smith AM, and Geoffrey Watson SC, Director of the Centre for Public Integrity, call on the Parliament of Australia to recognise that the integrity arm of government deserves independence, resourcing and recognition:

1. Integrity agencies should be protected from government interference by making them officers of the Parliament. Democratically elected parliamentarians should take responsibility for appointments and oversight, as is already the case for some state integrity agencies where the head of the institution is an officer of the Parliament that reports to and is answerable to the Parliament.
2. Integrity agencies should have guaranteed, sustained resourcing to ensure they can hold governments to account, and are protected from...

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