Scott Morrison Says ICAC Is “A Real Problem”, Refuses To Start A Federal Anti-Corruption Body
"It is not a model we have ever contemplated going at a federal level,” Morrison told Sunrise.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has asserted that the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) doing its job of investigating corruption within the New South Wales Government is a “real problem.”
Speaking on Sunrise on Tuesday morning, Morrison has again insisted that the Federal Government is not keen to roll out a similar independent investigation system on a federal level. “It is certainly not a model we ever consider at a federal level, anything that has been on display for some time,” Morrison said, asserting that ICAC already wields too much power in New South Wales. “You have got to have processes that assume people are innocent before they are thought to be guilty.”
However, it is worth noting that the ICAC investigation didn’t force former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to resign from her role. Berejiklian resigned because she didn’t believe it was appropriate to continue in her role while such a serious corruption investigation is active.
“Resigning at this time is against every instinct in my being…but…to continue as Premier would disrupt the State Government during a time when our entire attention should be focused on the challenges confronting NSW,” she said on Friday.
She has maintained her innocence throughout the inquiry. Junkee does not allege that she is guilty of corruption.
“That is a real problem. It is not a model we have ever contemplated going at a federal level,” Morrison said of the ICAC system.
This is particularly interesting considering the Senate passed a Greens bill last year to establish just that: a federal anti-corruption body. Instead of, you know, establishing one, Scott Morrison has asserted that the Federal Government already has sufficient anti-corruption measures in place. You know, because history has taught us that corruption is something that can be self-regulated.
“We have a set of arrangements at a federal level that can be built upon, but (are) certainly not going down that path, and I’m sure there are millions of people who can see what has happened to Gladys Berejiklian and understand that a pretty good call not to follow that model,” Morrison told Sunrise.
But make no mistake, this didn’t “happen” to Gladys Berejiklian. Gladys Berejiklian has found herself to be the subject of a corruption inquiry and, as a result, has done the only appropriate thing and resigned from her position as Premier, while maintaining her innocence. There is every chance that she will be found not guilty of corruption, but that doesn’t mean we should have never had the inquiry in the first place.