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Australian Way of Preventing Corruptions (2)

Australian Way of Preventing Corruptions (2)

Joewei Li

In my previous article I mentioned Freedom of Information law, and the defamation denial way for preventing Government officials from misusing their powers and protecting freedom of speech.

There are also other ways: Curruption Watching Dogs and Police Investigations.

3. Corruption Watching Dogs

Different states have the watching dogs under the different names for the same purpose of anti-corruption. In New South Wales (NSW) the name for this is The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)

The NSW ICAC played an important role in the investigation to the recent Wollongong Council scandal where some key Labor Party councilors were accused of being associated wtih the corruptions ( politial donations and other accusations such as sex scandales). As the result of investigation the Wollongong council was sacked by the NSW Labor Government. The investigation was initialated by the request made by the State Opposition (Liberal Party) Leader via the NSW Parliament.

4. Police Investigation

Police could involve into similar investigations. For instance in the recent Iguanagate incident, the state police was called to investigate the contradiction of statutory declarations made by the the both sides.
According to the law, making false a statutory declaration is a criminal offence, can result a maximum penalty of five years in jail. When criminal investigation is involded than the state police in general is involved.

Ironically in the Iguana incident, that is involved with the police investigation, one side was the poor staffers, the employees of a night club against the other side, a couple of powerful politicians, the hunsband was the NSW state education minister who was also a member of the State Parliament, and the wife was a member of the Federal Parliament. It was also reported that the NSW IACA involved into the Iguanagate investigation.

The investigations to the both politicians and the night club staffers are still undergoing. The danger for the couple was once they were found guilty of making false statutory declarations, not only will they lose their jobs, and their political careers, but also they probably will be charged with criminal offence; their way of life the society in term may be deeply affected.

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