You deserve a government you can trust.
Corruption expert Geoffrey Watson SC estimates that $15 billion of Victorian taxpayers' money has been lost to waste, misconduct, and organised crime on the state's major infrastructure projects. Billions that should have funded schools, hospitals, and local services.
For years, Labor looked the other way until the new Premier, Ben Carroll, called a Royal Commission into the Big Build, after pressure from Independent candidates like me, integrity experts and other political parties.
But there was still much work to be done. Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) was established by a Liberal government in 2014. It was deliberately designed to be weak, and successive Labor governments were very happy to keep IBAC weak. Neither party was willing to give IBAC real teeth to scrutinise governments, expose misconduct and root out corruption.
In July, I co-hosted an event at Hawthorn Town Hall, attended by over 400 community members, who unanimously agreed that they wanted Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) to have the same powers as NSW’s ICAC, and for the definition of corruption to be expanded to include serious misconduct by public officials.
Since then, it has been gratifying to see both the Labor and Liberal parties ‘read the room’ and finally give IBAC the same powers as ICAC, including ‘follow the money’ powers to trace public funds through third party and private sub-contractors on government projects; an expanded definition of corruption; and public hearings.
As an Independent, I will continue to hold the major parties to account on integrity issues.
I’ll fight to:
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Secure independent funding for our integrity watchdogs: IBAC, the Ombudsman, and the Auditor-General, and
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Ensure the implementation of the Big Build Royal Commission findings
Victorians deserve a robust system of accountability. I'll fight for one.
For Hawthorn: Representation that answers to you—not a party room.
