WA's Corruption and Crime Commission Freed Up to Focus on Serious Misconduct
Thursday 9 July 2015 @ 10.36 a.m. | Crime | Judiciary, Legal Profession & Procedure | Legal Research
With the commencement of the Corruption and Crime Commission Amendment (Misconduct) Act 2014 (No. 35 of 2014)(WA) (the CCC Amending Act) on 1 July 2015 it is reported that the expectation is now that Western Australia's Corruption and Crime Commission (the CCC) will be freed up to focus on serious corruption and police misconduct when the Public Sector Commission (the PSC) takes over responsibility for overseeing minor transgressions.
Background to Amending Legislation
The CCC Amending Act amends the Corruption and Crime Commission Act 2003 (WA) (the CCC Act) to transfer the oversight of minor misconduct by public officers from the CCC to the PSC. As well the CCC’s misconduct prevention and education function is also be transferred to the PSC.
The amending legislation then seeks to redefine the CCC’s role to the oversight of the serious misconduct of public officers. The CCC’s current jurisdiction over all matters of police misconduct, including prevention and education, are retained allowing the CCC to continue to oversee the conduct of police officers and other government officers employed by the WA Police.
Further, in his speech, which was read to the Parliament, the Premier indicated that:
"To the extent to which its oversight and prevention functions are entwined, the CCC will be given power to assist, in cooperation with the PSC, any public authority that it identifies in the course of performing its other functions as having a special need to increase its capacity to prevent or combat misconduct."
The logic behind the redirection of minor misconduct matters to the PSC is said by the Premier in his speech to be that:
"Matters of minor misconduct comprise the largest number of disciplinary issues concerning public bodies and officers."
And that:
"As the PSC already has a strong presence in advising, educating and training on disciplinary matters, the transfer of minor misconduct and prevention and education functions from the CCC will complement his current responsibilities."
Key Changes Made by the Legislation
As already stated the key change is the transfer of oversight of minor misconduct by public officers from the CCC to the Public Sector Commissioner.
Exceptions are that the PSC’s minor misconduct jurisdiction will not include police misconduct, misconduct by members or the Clerks of the Parliament or local government members or councillors.
Expansion of the PSC’s jurisdiction includes minor misconduct of staff and board members of government trading enterprises, local government staff, and university staff and board members, which already fall within the public interest disclosure regime administered by the PSC.
For the purposes of the legislation “Minor misconduct” is to be constituted by conduct as defined in section 4(d) of the current definition of “misconduct” in the CCC Act. Paragraph (v) of the definition, relating to an offence against the Statutory Corporations (Liability of Directors) Act 1996, is removed as it was "considered superfluous".
“Serious misconduct” of public officers is all conduct mentioned in sections 4(a), (b) and (c) of the current definition of “misconduct” in the CCC Act. "Serious misconduct" is misconduct involving corruption or a criminal offence punishable by two or more years’ imprisonment. The CCC’s jurisdiction with respect to serious misconduct is to remain unchanged with respect to public officers other than members of Parliament. The role of the CCC in relation to members of Parliament has been ". . . clarified to avoid any concurrent role for the CCC over matters in which the Parliament is able to exercise its authority under parliamentary privilege".
The legislation also makes provision for the PSC and the CCC to "consult, cooperate and exchange information . . ." for example, when preparing guidelines under the CCC Act to ensure that such guidelines are integrated and do not create duplicate reporting requirements.
To reflect the change in emphasis the legislation has been renamed from the Corruption and Crime Commission Act 2003 to Corruption, Crime and Misconduct Act 2003.
Previous Legislation and Further Amendments Foreshadowed
Referring to a previous attempt to pass the legislation in 2012 the Premier said in his speech that the previous 2012 proposed legislation had been criticised by some as: ". . . having the potential to damage the independence, and hence the effectiveness, of the CCC in regard to its role of oversighting police conduct . . ." however, the Premiers speech goes on to say ". . . that the government is not ignorant of the potential risks to the CCC’s independence by enabling it to work more closely with police". The speech then foreshadows further amendments to ensure the CCC's independence:
"Further work will therefore be undertaken to refine the legislative mandate of the CCC and its structure in order to enhance its capacity to combat organised and serious crime. The government plans to introduce additional amendments to this effect at a later stage."
Refocus Approach not Confined to CCC
The WA Government says the legislation ". . . enhances the integrity and accountability of public officers by refocusing the CCC as the state’s pre-eminent corruption-fighting body". The legislation appears to be part of a trend where the WA government has sought to streamline and refocus administrative bodies. Another example is, the merging from 1 July 2015 of the State's Drug and Alcohol Office with the Mental Health Commission - where again the purpose of the merger is, according to Mental Health Minister Helen Morton in estimates hearings in 2014, ". . . to bring about much greater collaboration between the two agencies to provide better services to people with both mental illnesses and drug and alcohol problems". The Minister also saying:
"The way services have operated in the past has meant that too many people are excluded from one or the other service because they have comorbidity (having one or more diseases or disorders), . . It is estimated that 70 per cent of people in residential care have comorbidity."
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Sources:
Corruption and Crime Commission Amendment (Misconduct) Act 2014 (No. 35 of 2014) the Bill and Premier's second reading speech as reported in the TimeBase LawOne Service.
Only major misconduct for CCC from July 1 (Nine-News)
