The Long Road to Integrity: The Australia Institute & the NACC
In 2017, a conference in Canberra planted a seed that would take six long years to grow — and even now, the fruit of that labour is only half-ripe.
At the time, Australia was one of the few developed democracies without a dedicated federal anti-corruption body. Every state had one — New South Wales had ICAC, Victoria had IBAC, Queensland had the CCC — but at the national level, the cupboard was bare.
The idea of a watchdog for Commonwealth government officials had been raised for decades, but dismissed repeatedly by successive federal governments, particularly those on the conservative side of politics.
That changed when The Australia Institute (TAI), a Canberra-based think tank, decided to push accountability onto the national stage.
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Accountability and the Law: The 2017 Turning Point
In August 2017, TAI convened a one-day conference at Parliament House called “Accountability and the Law”. It brought together some of the country’s sharpest legal and political minds, investigative journalists, and advocates for transparency — people who had spent careers fighting corruption and watching governments try to hide it.
Among them were Nicholas Cowdery AM QC, former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions; Geoffrey Watson SC, counsel assisting the NSW ICAC during several high-profile inquiries; David Ipp AO QC, former ICAC Commissioner; Mark Dreyfus QC, then Shadow Attorney-General; and Ben Oquist, Executive Director of The Australia Institute.
David Ipp AO QC (deceased 8 October 2020) lawyer, judge and Commissioner of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption between 2009 and 2014. Ipp was a judge of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Nicholas Cowdery AM QC, former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions
Journalist Nick McKenzie from Nine Entertainment; Senator Richard Di Natale, Leader of The Greens; & Senator Jacqui Lambie, Independent Senator for Tasmania
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The conference also drew political voices outside the mainstream parties — Senator Richard Di Natale, Leader of the Greens, and Senator Jacqui Lambie, the maverick Independent from Tasmania — alongside prominent journalists Quentin Dempster, Linton Besser, and Nick McKenzie, whose investigative work had exposed corruption across politics, policing, and business.
The message was clear: the Commonwealth was lagging badly. The machinery of accountability that operated at the state level simply did not exist federally.
At that point, public confidence in politics was already waning. TAI polling in 2017 showed that 82% of Australians supported the creation of a national anti-corruption body. Yet the federal government of the day — led by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and later Scott Morrison — resisted the idea. Morrison famously dismissed calls for a watchdog as a “fringe issue,” suggesting that such a body would become a “kangaroo court.”
If that phrase sounds familiar, it’s because it later came back to haunt him.
The Pressure Mounts
The Australia Institute, led by Ben Oquist and backed by figures like Mark Dreyfus and Geoffrey Watson, played the long game. They published research papers, ran public campaigns, and used forums like the Accountability and the Law conference to keep the idea alive — to make it politically impossible to ignore.
As corruption scandals accumulated — from sports rorts to questionable government contracts — the pressure built. By 2022, after nearly a decade of conservative resistance, the political winds shifted.
The Labor Party, with Mark Dreyfus now Attorney-General, introduced the National Anti-Corruption Commission Bill 2022, fulfilling an election promise. The bill passed with broad support in December of that year.
On 1 July 2023, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) opened its doors.
Nicholas Cowdery, Geoffrey Watson, Han Aulby, David Ipp, Ebony Bennett © Mark Anning photo
The NACC: A Watchdog With Its Muzzle On
The NACC’s establishment was hailed as a victory for transparency — but not without caveats.
The Commission’s mandate is broad: it can investigate serious or systemic corruption involving Commonwealth public officials, including ministers, parliamentarians, and public servants. It also has a preventive role — promoting education, ethics, and integrity across government.
But for all its promise, the NACC began life with the same flaw that reformers had long warned against: most of its hearings are held behind closed doors.
Public hearings are permitted only in “exceptional circumstances” and when “it is in the public interest.” In practice, this has meant that almost all proceedings have been private — a frustrating irony given that transparency was the very principle the Commission was created to serve.
Then-Opposition Attorney General Mark Dreyfuss & Ben Oquist from The Australia Institute
© Mark Anning photo
Robodebt and the Closed Curtain
The Robodebt scandal — the unlawful automated debt recovery scheme that drove vulnerable Australians into despair and in some cases suicide — was the first true test of the NACC’s mettle.
The Royal Commission into Robodebt, delivered in 2023, made six referrals to the new anti-corruption body for possible criminal or integrity breaches involving senior public servants and former ministers.
Yet, over a year later, the NACC’s handling of these matters has been almost entirely opaque. It confirmed in early 2025 that six referrals from the Royal Commission were under investigation, but the Commission has released little detail since.
There have been no public hearings, no interim reports, and no clarity about who is being held accountable for one of the most shameful episodes in modern Australian governance.
Critics argue that by choosing secrecy over sunlight, the NACC risks becoming the very thing it was meant to replace — a gatekeeper rather than a watchdog.
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The Legacy of 2017
Despite its cautious beginnings, the creation of the NACC remains one of the most significant institutional reforms of the past decade — and much of that credit belongs to The Australia Institute and its allies, who refused to let the issue fade from public consciousness.
The 2017 Accountability and the Law conference was more than a talkfest. It was the catalyst for a movement that demanded the federal government be held to the same standard of integrity as the states.
As of today, the NACC reports receiving over 4,000 referrals and conducting dozens of active investigations. It has begun issuing findings, some inherited from the now-defunct Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI), and continues to develop its prevention and education arm.
Whether it grows into a fearless public watchdog — or remains a cautious bureaucratic referee — will depend on political will, public expectation, and the courage of the Commission itself.
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About the Photographs
1EarthMedia was present at the 2017 Accountability and the Law conference and retains an exclusive photographic archive of the event.
Images include:
- Nicholas Cowdery AM QC
- Geoffrey Watson SC
- Mark Dreyfus QC with Ben Oquist from The Australia Institute
- Senator Richard Di Natale, Senator Jacqui Lambie
- Journalists Quentin Dempster, Linton Besser, and Nick McKenzie
- The late David Ipp AO QC
These photographs are available for use by independent media with credit and backlink.
Mainstream media and commercial outlets: please contact 1EarthMedia for licensing and reproduction enquiries. We specialise in event photography and have covered international summits such as G7 Economic Summit, CHOGM and APEC; Olympic and Commonwealth Games; and hundreds of events ranging from theatre and film production, conferences, performances and festivals.
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