Perth Voice Interactive

IT may be not much older than a toddler, but the Centre for Public Integrity is celebrating its fifth birthday this year. 

The Herald had a chat to CPI board member Michael Barker, a former federal court judge, Freo local and editor of the Fremantle Shipping News. 

A “pivotal force” of research into democratic integrity, the think tank was founded in 2019 amidst concerns about wobbles in Australia’s democratic processes. 

“It has some eminent people behind it: judges, retired judges, practicing barristers, political scientists, and others who have been for some time greatly interested in making sure that we cement integrity in government in all our systems,” Mr Barker said. 

The CPI was a key player in pushiong for the National Anti- Corruption Commission bill which was passed in 2022. 

“There was a lot of resistance,” Mr Barker said. 

“It was through bodies like the centre providing the research and answers as to why [the NACC] should work, could work, and would work. 

“We were keen to talk to people who are keen to see integrity measures put in.” 

“We consult with state, as well as federal agencies and politicians. 

The CPI also focuses on money in politics, and looks at the impact political donations have on the health of Australian democracy.

“We’re been very concerned about money in politics and the corrosive influence that money can have,” Mr Barker said.

“We’ve been pushing states and the feds to improve their political donations disclosure laws.”

The CPI has also floated the idea of an independent funding tribunal, which would ensure rigorous surveillance over government spending to avoid pork barrelling and to encourage “evidence-based” decision-making.

“A tribunal is a good way to ensure that the public interest is emphasised to the maximum extent,” Mr Barker said.

“We want grants made to all sorts of bodies in the public interest right around the country, not on the basis of whether it’s a marginal seat – not on broad politics.”

As for the state of the democracy in our own backyard? “It’s most unusual,” Mr Barker said of the unique situation WA finds itself in given Labor’s stronghold over both the Upper and Lower houses of Parliament.

“It seems like the last election the people of Western Australia were so impressed with the then-premier… but you have to bear in mind, things can change.

“I’ve never forgotten when I did postgraduate work in Canada in the late 1970s when the conservative Tory party in in Canada held sway at the federal level considerably, and then suddenly, due to a great state of dissatisfaction were almost totally voted out of the Federal Parliament.

“Politics is politics, at the end of the day.”

CPI chair and fellow judge Anthony Whealy said the centre’s annual “Hidden Money” campaign had “changed the landscape of political finance reporting. Between 1998/9 and 2022/23, political parties have declared income of $5.7 billion of which almost $1.7 billion is of unexplained origin,” Mr Whealy said.

“Before we began our analysis, this critical issue was largely neglected, but each year we conduct the research the public outcry leads us closer to a cleaner, more transparent political finance system.”