The struggle to regulate integrity: money and politics

Electoral Regulation Research Network seminar

Wednesday 21 April 2021

Presenters:

  • Jen O’Farrell, CEO, QLD Crime and Corruption Commission
  • Marlo Baragwanath, CEO, Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission
  • Professor Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Sydney
  • Professor Joo-Cheong, Inaugural Director, Electoral Regulation Research Network

About the Talk

Presented by NRCoP, Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) and the Electoral Regulation Research Network (ERRN).

No one stands for office or enters the public sector promising to undermine integrity, engage in corruption or turn a blind eye to wrongdoing - and yet, somehow, scandals at the intersection of money, power and politics are everywhere.

For the many integrity bodies charged with promoting pro-integrity behaviour and/or regulating its opposite, the usual difficulties of speaking truth to power as a regulator are compounded when the highest levels of politics or the bureaucracy are your duty holders.

What can we all learn from the struggle to regulate ‘hot potato’ issues like political donations? How do those in charge of enforcing painfully crafted rules negotiate the traps and pitfalls of their role?