2021 Australian Parliament House sexual misconduct allegations

• Morrison wanted Berejiklian as candidate because she was a vote magnet; he dismissed ICAC as a kangaroo court.
• For many female voters, Berejiklian was the poster face for how high women could fly in politics.
• The phone taps of their conversations, in which Berejiklian turned a deliberately deaf ear to Maguire’s dodgy dealings, were devastating.
• It was, however, not until a year later that Berejiklian resigned, after ICAC turned its blowtorch directly on to her.
• Under the NACC’s act, a public official engages in corrupt conduct if they breach public trust, abuse their office, or misuse official information.
• While the NACC has strong public support, the experience of ICAC indicates any anti-corruption body will inevitably, over the years, find itself at the centre of intense controversies.
• With the power to break public figures, the stakes in some investigations will be very high.

• But the scalp wasn’t that of Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, who was targeted by the Liberals.
• The Liberals knew their pursuit of Gallagher for allegedly misleading parliament over her knowledge of the Brittany Higgins matter would carry some political risk.
• But they could never have imagined they’d be damaged in such a dramatic fashion, ceding one of their senators to the crossbench.
• Federal politics, the tone of which has been better than in the last parliamentary term, once again descended into a toxic mire.
• I would open the door slightly and check the coast was clear before stepping out,” she said.
• The latest round of the Higgins issue has also been entangled in what we can call the media wars.
• Regardless of this, many members of the public, hearing the news reports of this week, will conclude little has changed.

• Every Australian state and territory, and the Commonwealth itself, has a Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
• Their main role is to initiate and conduct prosecutions of serious crimes in the superior courts.
• If police charge a suspect for a serious crime, they prepare a brief of evidence and provide it to the office of the DPP.
• If the prosecutor decides to prosecute a serious crime, the lives of the defendant and the victim are changed forever.
• Reasonable minds often differ on prosecutorial decisions, and disagreement can be a healthy “check and balance” within the system.

What is a DPP?

• They sell their worth to voters by showing themselves to be “tough on crime” and on the people who commit crime.
• They should only prosecute a case if it’s in the public interest and there’s a reasonable prospect of a conviction.
• The outcome of any trial must be fair and just, and not simply a “notch in the belt” of a prosecutor.

Political dilemma

• An increasingly cynical public had trouble accepting that an attorney-general could really make decisions about prosecutions without being influenced by the political consequences for themselves, their party or their government.
• So there’s a balancing issue: how to make sure prosecutorial decisions are not so political that they are made in the short-term interests of governments, but political enough that they reflect community standards.
• To put the dilemma in legal terms, how do we achieve independence, accountability and the public interest in prosecutorial decisions?

An odd compromise

• The question is answered in Australia by way of a rather odd compromise.
• The DPP makes prosecutorial decisions in a statutory office independent of politics, but the DPP is appointed by the governor, who is advised by the government.
• DPPs are appointed for limited terms (unlike judges who are appointed until retirement), so if they displease the government, they may not be reappointed.