The Report by the Independent Reviewer, the Honourable William Cox AC, RFD, ED, QC into the Review of the Integrity Commission Act 2009 was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday 24 August 2016.
The Report can be downloaded from the links below.
In accordance with section 106 of the Integrity Commission Act 2009 (the Act), the Minister for Justice had to commission an independent review of the Act (the Review) as soon as possible after 31 December 2015 to enable consideration of
The Honourable William Cox AC, RFD, ED, QC has been appointed as the Independent Reviewer to undertake the Review.
The Review commenced on 1 February 2016 and is due to report by 31 May 2016. However, the Minister for Justice may extend this term by written notice to enable the Independent Reviewer to complete the Review.
The Independent Reviewer called for written submissions from interested parties to enable consideration of the matters detailed above. Written submissions are generally made public. Submitters could request that their submission be treated in confidence, in full or in part, and had to set out in writing the basis for the request to be treated in confidence.
The Independent Reviewer is responsible for determining the confidentiality of any written submissions.
Information has been redacted from some submissions to maintain confidentiality and protect personal information. The Independent Reviewer has decided that some submissions received not be made public at this time.
Parties making submissions were also invited to indicate whether they wished to make oral submissions to the Independent Reviewer, either in private or public hearing and again the reasons for their requests.
The Independent Reviewer is responsible for deciding whether to take oral submissions in a private or public hearing.
At the conclusion of the Review the Independent Reviewer will provide the Minister with a written Report of his findings and recommendations.
The Minister must in accordance with section 106 transmit a copy of that Report to the President of the Legislative Council and the Speaker of the House of Assembly and cause a copy to be laid before each House of Parliament within 14 days of receiving it.
Queries in the first instance can be made by email to integrity.review@justice.tas.gov.au.
Section 106 of the Integrity Commission Act 2009, requires that there be an independent Review of the Act and the entities created by the Act.
The matters to be considered as part of the review are specified in the Act. Those matters are:
any other matters relevant to the effect of this Act in improving ethical conduct and public confidence in public authorities.
As with any new piece of legislation there are likely to be operational and other issues that arise as the provisions of the Act are used to deal with particular circumstances.
This review provides an opportunity for any of those issues to be raised and considered.
The Honourable William Cox AC, RFD, ED, QC was appointed from 1 February 2016 to undertake the Review.
Mr Cox is a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania. He was also the Governor of Tasmania from 15 December 2004 until 1 April 2008.
The conduct of the Review is a matter for the Independent Reviewer.
The Independent Reviewer is required to invite submissions relevant to the Review from the public and prepare a written report for the Minister for Justice, the Hon Dr Vanessa Goodwin MLC.
Written submissions are generally made public unless there is a reason not to. The Independent Reviewer determines whether a submission is to be made public.
Some considerations in determining whether to make a submission public are:
You may request that your submission is kept confidential in your submission or a covering letter.
The Independent Reviewer must invite submissions relevant to the review from the public and give them due consideration.
The closing date for written submissions was 4 March 2016.
Submissions received after 4 March 2016 may be accepted at the discretion of the Independent Reviewer.
You may make a request to present an oral submission in your written submission or in a covering letter to the Independent Reviewer.
Hearings may be arranged to allow submitters to make an oral presentation.
The Independent Reviewer may ask a person or body to make an oral submission.
Attendance at a hearing to make an oral submission is voluntary.
The Independent Reviewer is responsible for deciding whether to take oral submissions in a private or public hearing.
The Independent Reviewer will decide when hearings will be held and who is to be invited to make oral submissions at the hearings.
The Independent Reviewer will contact those people whom he wishes to invite to make oral submissions.
The Independent Reviewer must prepare a written report, and may seek the views of a person or body about part of his written report. The Independent Reviewer is due to report to the Minister for Justice by 31 May 2016.
The Minister for Justice may extend this term by written notice to enable the Independent Reviewer to complete the Review.
The Minister is required to:
Yes. Once the Report is tabled in Parliament it becomes a public document.
The Department of Justice is providing logistical and administrative support to the Independent Reviewer, but has no substantive role in the work of the Independent Reviewer.
This means that:
A part-time Executive Officer is available to assist the Independent Reviewer with administrative and secretariat support as required by the Independent Reviewer. (In this role the Executive Officer takes direction from the Independent Reviewer not departmental officers, but may request assistance from other Department of Justice officers, for example to facilitate web publishing, word processing or payments to the Independent Reviewer).
If you are unable to access these public submissions, please email integrity.review@justice.tas.gov.au.
At this point in time six other submissions have been received but have not been made public.
Some submissions refer to the Three year review of the functions, powers and operations of the Integrity Commission conducted by the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Integrity.
Send queries to secretary@justice.tas.gov.au.
