Former Supreme Court judge Stephen Charles has thrown his support behind the creation of a federal anti-corruption body as Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) hearings continue in Sydney.
The ICAC hearings are set to continue next week, with a decision due on whether to release emails concerning a well-known person and their knowledge of donations from developers.
It has been suggested that money was paid into the Free Enterprise Foundation and then paid straight back to the New South Wales Liberal Party or to individual candidates' campaign accounts, without the taint of a banned donation.
Mr Charles, a member of the Accountability Round Table, said the establishment of a federal ICAC would help deal with similar, and in his view inevitable, concerns at a national level.
"We've been calling for a federal anti-corruption body for a long time," Mr Charles told ABC's AM program.
"Sydney is simply an example of what happens in an environment where there is plenty of money - it means that corruption follows.
"Anywhere where people are in a position to spend money and [hold] influence and power, there will be others seeking to obtain them. And Canberra is where most of these things are to be found."
Mr Charles said he believed such a plan would be met with an unfavourable reaction in Canberra.
"The natural reaction from politicians in Canberra is a total lack of enthusiasm, understandably," he said.
"When they see what is happening in Sydney and in any place where you've got a good, functioning anti-corruption commission, naturally they do not want that sort of overview and surveillance of operations in their area.
"The trouble is that, when you look at Canberra and you look at its history, there are any number of examples of corruption by individual officials in Customs, in Defence, even in Treasury."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/24915739/icac-former-supreme-court-judge-stephen-charles-calls-for-federal-anti-corruption-board/
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