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Three powerful commissioners would be given sweeping authority to investigate bullying and harassment complaints against Victorian MPs under plans for a long-awaited integrity shake-up in state parliament, that would also allow commissioners to probe misuse of taxpayer funds.

The proposal is one of seven changes the Allan government will take to Victoria’s 128 MPs to increase oversight, following a damning investigation by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the Victorian ombudsman into corruption, branch stacking and poor behaviour by Labor.

Premier Jacinta Allan will consult on the proposed changes with the Coalition and minor parties.Credit: Jason South

As part of the overhaul, the government will propose a new parliamentary integrity commission as well as a parliamentary ethics committee, made up of MPs from across the political divide, which would oversee the code of conduct for politicians and provide training.

Those two recommendations were included in the 21 recommendations made by IBAC and the ombudsman – which the government vowed to introduce.

The government had promised to implement key reforms by June 2024, but will only begin consultation with MPs in the coming months to help it craft a final model. Legislation is to be introduced to parliament next year.

The government’s proposed integrity shake-up, unveiled on Tuesday, acts on seven of the 21 recommendations arising from Operation Watts. But the Allan government will argue its model draws on other work from other integrity investigations, including work by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, who looked at the safety of people working in Commonwealth parliamentary offices following allegations of sexual assault in Canberra.

“We’re holding a thorough consultation process to ensure we achieve the highest standards of conduct and integrity of MPs in all aspects of their work for Victorians,” Premier Jacinta Allan said ahead of the proposal’s release on Tuesday.

The government on Tuesday also announced Victoria Elliott as the new IBAC commissioner, as revealed by The Age last week.

Elliott is a lawyer and current deputy head of the small and secretive Office of the Public Interest Monitor. Between 2013 and 2016, she was a managing lawyer at IBAC, and before that, worked with the now defunct Office of Police Integrity. She does not have judicial experience.

Integrity and legal experts have regularly attacked the state government for its approach to integrity matters. Outgoing IBAC head Robert Redlich became increasingly vocal about the hurdles he faced trying to investigate corruption within the government.

His co-investigator on Operation Watts, outgoing Ombudsman Deborah Glass, also used one of her last official reports to criticise the government for hampering her work.

“We still do not have a broad ability to release information in the public interest, our investigations can be hampered by our inability to obtain cabinet-in-confidence documents, our oversight regime is inefficient and ineffective, and while there have been welcome moves towards budget independence, reform does not go far enough,” she said on Thursday.

In September, the public service watchdogs raised concerns about a lack of consultation on the integrity changes. The changes were recommended following a July 2022 report triggered by a joint investigation by The Age and 60 Minutes, which exposed a branch-stacking operation by former Labor minister Adem Somyurek that prompted the premier to sack him from the parliamentary party.

Then premier Daniel Andrews apologised for the “shameful and absolutely disgraceful” behaviour of some former ministers. Andrews said he accepted all 21 recommendations of Operation Watts, which called for reforms to stop the use of taxpayer staff for party political activities and anti-corruption measures such as a parliamentary integrity commissioner.

Former minister Adem Somyurek and former premier Daniel Andrews.Credit:

Under the proposed model, the Allan government would consult on the design of the parliamentary integrity commission but has suggested it would be able to receive public interest disclosures about MPs and ministers and investigate some complaints. But the three commissioners would be excluded from probing policy matters or complaints about matters that occurred before its establishment.

The commissioners would be appointed on the advice of the responsible minister for a maximum five-year term. Appointments would be subject to consideration by Victorian parliament’s integrity and oversight committee, which would have a veto power over proposed appointees.

Complaints that predate the commission being implemented (planned for June next year) will not fall under its scope. Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said she was motivated to make parliament a safe workplace with a better culture.

“One of the advantages of having a system where you can make complaints easily is that you don’t have to wait for a serious complaint to raise an issue,” Symes said. “It is not necessarily to deal with the worst of the worst situations.

“And when issues arise, people have the confidence that there is a framework that will support their complaint in a supportive way, but in a comprehensive way where that can be dealt with, without fear of politicisation or media interest and the like.”

Following an investigation, the commission’s reports would be publicly tabled in parliament.

The changes outlined on Tuesday do not address the recommendations that further restrictions be placed on parliamentary staff performing party-specific activities, or the creation of a specific offence for MPs who direct or allow their staff to carry out party-specific activities. This was raised after the “red shirts” scandal in 2014, in which Labor MPs used taxpayer-funded electorate office staff to conduct political campaigning in other electorates.

The government has not acted on the recommendation that the presiding officers and bureaucrats have a greater say in recruiting and selecting electorate office staff to encourage a more merit-based process.

It said the recommendations regarding MP staff arrangements were “being addressed in a separate ongoing piece of work”.

During last year’s state election, the Coalition called for an integrity crackdown, promising to introduce anti-corruption training for all senior public servants.

Shadow attorney-general Michael O’Brien said on Tuesday that the commission should have retrospective powers and that appointments needed to be bipartisan rather than selected by cabinet.

“This government does not want to tackle integrity,” O’Brien said. “So we will look at the government’s proposals, but forgive us for being a little bit cynical.”

Liberal MP Michael O’Brien says Labor is not serious about integrity.Credit: Joe Armao

Former Victorian Court of Appeal judge Stephen Charles, KC, who was one of IBAC’s founders, said the government had taken too long to act. “This government is not in the least enthusiastic about integrity and transparency,” he said on Tuesday.

Charles said the government was seeking to make important improvements but was critical that Labor was proposing to block retrospective complaints.

He said it did not go far enough, dealing with just seven of the 21 recommendations from Operation Watts.

“This government has been very slow to do anything about integrity, at a time when they’ve had a lot of criticism thrown at them by IBAC and the ombudsman complaining about this government’s lack of integrity.”

The Greens have long called for tougher integrity measures. The party’s integrity spokesman, Tim Read, said the proposal could go further by making ministerial diaries public, establishing a code of conduct for lobbyists and boosting IBAC’s powers.

“Better late than never. There’s no need, however, to put it off until sometime next year. This really could be organised this year if they put their mind to it. However, it’s only a small piece of the integrity reforms that are needed,” Read said.

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