00:01Well this Royal Commission is in response to allegations that date back years and they were
00:06sort of first aired in the press in 2024 when Jacinta Allen was the Premier. The allegations
00:11are that criminal gangs have infiltrated unions, the CFMEU to be specific, as well as corruption
00:16accusations on Victoria's big build. Now the big build for those of you outside of Victoria is a
00:22major infrastructure agenda from the Andrews, Allen and now Carroll governments spending billions of
00:27dollars on new railway tunnels, level crossing removals as well as new highways. A significant
00:33piece of not only state infrastructure but also political gamesmanship. Now this has now been
00:39tarred and the new Premier Ben Carroll has been under pressure to announce the Royal Commission.
00:44He said it would be his first act as Premier when he took over from Jacinta Allen three weeks ago
00:48and
00:49it should be noted that Jacinta Allen ultimately lost her job because of her reluctance to call
00:53a Royal Commission. Ben Carroll says he's been advocating for this for some time privately but
00:58was always going to back the leader and there's been plenty of other people calling for a Royal
01:01Commission. Now the Royal Commission will be led by former Chief Justice of the South Australian
01:06Supreme Court Christopher Caracas. He's moving to Melbourne to conduct this inquiry. It's going to
01:11last at least 12 months and will cost up to 50 million dollars and the terms of reference are very
01:17broad. Ministers, Premiers etc can be called before this. Ben Carroll said nothing is off limits. He wants
01:25to find out what went wrong, how it happened, how it was allowed to happen and what steps should be
01:30taken
01:30to prevent it from happening in the past. This is going to be, he says, a very exhaustive process and
01:35if
01:36the resources are required more from the Commissioner he will grant them. Let's have a listen to what the
01:40Premier said a short time ago. There was grift, there was thuggery, there was misogyny and there was
01:48violence on taxpayer funded correction stocks, on taxpayer funded construction sites. I have zero
01:58tolerance for that. We are giving this Royal Commission the broadest, most extensive, wide-ranging
02:05powers. Full transparency, nothing is off limits. Well the next steps are the Premier is also going to
02:12appoint a special prosecutor which hasn't really been used in Victorian Royal Commissions before
02:17and he wants a special prosecutor set up and that will require an act of Parliament and this special
02:22prosecutor will be given special powers to work alongside the Royal Commission to actually hold
02:26those found to have done the wrong thing, to have been guilty of that grift and corruption that the Premier
02:30talked about, to actually be pursued through the courts and face charges. The Royal Commission can
02:35only recommend that so the special prosecutor will work hand in glove to ensure that happens. The
02:40other thing that's also going to happen in the last week of Parliament before the election, remember
02:44Victorians go to the polls in 100 days time, the government has announced, the Premier has announced
02:48they'll introduce legislation to increase the powers of IBAC, now that's the state's anti-corruption
02:54commission. Now they will be given greater powers to follow the dollar, so follow money in contracts with
02:59the private sector, as well as Victoria will lower the threshold for what is considered corrupt conduct to be
03:04more in line with other states. The threshold in Victoria is currently quite high. Now the former
03:09Premier to Centre Allen had promised to institute some of these changes but they were going to happen
03:13after the election. Ben Carroll now says it will introduce laws before the election and will
03:18include extra sitting days of Parliament to ensure it passes before Victorians head to the polls at the end of
03:24November.
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