The state’s anti-corruption watchdog has demanded a complete re-write of police complaints legislation, the abolition of the Police Ombudsman and giving oversight of SAPOL to his own Office for Public Integrity.
Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander this afternoon released his report, commissioned last October, into legislative schemes governing complaints and reports about public administration, and the oversight of police conduct.
It makes 29 recommendations, including repealing and redrafting the Police Complaints Act and scrapping the Police Ombudsman’s office.
The new legislation would instead give oversight of complaints and reports to the OPI, but SAPOL would have responsibility for initial assessment, subject to external audit.
“SAPOL should continue to have the primary responsibility for the investigation and resolution of complaints and reports about police,” Lander recommends.
He also advocates that ICAC “should be empowered to investigate … misconduct or maladministration in public administration, using the same powers as those available to SAPOL investigators tasked with investigating misconduct”.
Lander also recommends various amendments to the ICAC Act, empowering his office with Royal Commission powers to investigate potential misconduct and maladministration.
Further, legislation covering forensic procedures and surveillance would be amended “to provide that the relevant review and audit functions will be carried out by a suitably qualified person appointed by the Governor”.
“I am confident that if all of my recommendations are accepted, the integrity system in South Australia will be made more efficient and effective,” Lander said in a statement.
“In terms of the police complaints system, the existing system is far too complicated. I have recommended a number of reforms that would reduce that complexity, while ensuring that complaints and reports about police are dealt with effectively.”
He said having “a strong and truly independent oversight body” was “critical” to his recommendations.
“I have proposed that the Office for Public Integrity have the power to audit and review the manner in which all complaints and reports are dealt with by police and that the OPI have the power to issue directions to police in relation to those matters.”
In April, the acting Police Ombudsman Michael Grant told a public ICAC hearing there were “too many agencies” dealing with police complaints, suggesting his own department should be abolished.
“The current system in my view doesn’t tend to enhance that professional and mutual respectful distance between the police and the police ombudsman,” Grant said.
Outgoing Police Commissioner Gary Burns told the hearing there was “an opportunity to streamline the system”, arguing: “Have police do the assessments but be appropriately oversighted so that there is no concerns about the way police manage the system.”
Ironically, Lander’s recommendations arrived as parliament’s Crime and Public Integrity Policy Committee tabled its own report into the operations of the ICAC, acknowledging “the need for a mechanism under the Act for people to make complaints about how the (ICAC) Commissioner exercises his powers”.
This prompted Opposition calls for the Government to establish an “ICAC Inspectorate…to oversee the use of ICAC’s powers to ensure that they are being used appropriately and within the law”.
“There is still work that needs to be done to ensure South Australia has a strong, effective ICAC, such as introducing public hearings,” said Legal Affairs spokeswoman Vickie Chapman.
“To begin with though, the Government needs to put a mechanism in place to ensure that the ICAC is using its powers appropriately.”
