Integrity and Oversight Committee Hearings

My constituency question is to the Attorney-General. Yesterday in a public hearing of the Integrity and Oversight Committee I was prevented from asking about the impact of Victorian Labor’s underfunding of IBAC, the Victorian Ombudsman and the Victorian Inspectorate. For example, in the case of IBAC, they asked the Labor government in their budget bid for $55.371 million over the forward estimates and instead received $27.1 million—a shortfall of $28.271 million, or 51 per cent less than what they asked for. It is my strong belief that public sector integrity and accountability must sit alongside the institution of this Parliament as the foundation of our democracy. And so I ask: will the Attorney-General guarantee that the funding requested by integrity agencies as part of their current budget processes be delivered to those agencies? To do anything other than fully fund these agencies means that Victorian Labor seeks to actively undermine our democracy. Let us see if they do the right thing.