About us

What we do

We prevent and investigate public sector misconduct so you can have trust in government.

Our role is independent of State and local government, and operates outside the control of Ministers or government departments.

We also work with the public sector to improve the standard of conduct and ethics – through training, identifying risk areas and monitoring their complaint handling.

The Commission was established under the Integrity Commission Act 2009 (Tas).

An introduction to the Integrity Commission

Our values

Statement of integrity

The Integrity Commission always acts independently and in the public interest. We strive to be a positive influence and an agent for change within the public sector.

Our values are:

Respect
Accountability
Professionalism
Collaboration
Trust

All Commission employees are subject to the State Service Code of Conduct, provided in the State Service Act 2000 (Tas). Our values support the Code and the associated State Service Principles.

Diversity and inclusion

We recognise the strengths that diversity brings to our workplace as well as to the Tasmanian community.

We seek to make our workplace accessible for all people, and particularly encourage Indigenous Australians, people with disability, people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, mature age workers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTIQ+) people to consider a future with us.

Our structure

The Board

The Commission is governed by a Board comprising,

the Chief Commissioner, Greg Melick AO SC
three appointed Board members:
- Luppo Prins APM
- Phil Foulston
- Rob Winter

The office

The Commission is managed by our CEO Michael Easton and operates with an operations team, misconduct prevention team and business services team. As a small organisation, we work with a high degree of cross-team collaboration. All employees make a substantial contribution to the effectiveness of the office.

Operations

The Operations team is responsible for our complaint handling, monitoring and investigative functions. The unit handles all allegations of public sector misconduct and conducts own-motion investigations, as directed by the Board, as well as the Commission’s police oversight program.

The Director, Operations is Sarah Frost.

Education and Engagement

The Education and Engagement team progresses our objective of increasing public sector capacity to prevent and respond to misconduct risks. It does this through education and engagement, advice and support. The unit is also responsible for our communications and media portfolio.

The Director, Education and Engagement is Julia Hickey.

Corporate Services

The Corporate Services team oversees the management and continuous improvement of our business practices. This includes managing our financial services and reporting, information and IT security, records, facilities and human resources, and providing secretariat support to the Board and senior management.

The Director, Corporate Services is Cynthia Butler.

Office of the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner

The role of Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is established under section 27 of the Integrity Commission Act and is independent of the Commission.

The Hon Sue Smith AM was appointed Parliamentary Standards Commissioner in September 2021. This followed 2 terms in the position by the Hon Michael Tate AO.

Sue was first elected to public office in 1981 to Ulverstone Council, and was Warden of Ulverstone from 1992–93. She was the first Mayor of Central Coast Council, a newly created entity after Council Amalgamations in 1993. Sue was the President of the Local Government Association of Tasmania from 1994–98, and the Tasmanian representative on the Australia Local Government Association.

After retiring from local government, Sue was elected to the Legislative Council in 1997, and was President of the Council from 2008 until her retirement in 2013. Since then, Sue has been an Independent Director of the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association, Board member of the Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania, Chair of Marine and Safety Tasmania, and Commissioner of Glenorchy Council. Currently Sue retains her position on the Board of RACT and the Code of Conduct Panel for Local Government.

Accountability

The Commission is accountable to Parliament through the Joint Standing Committee on Integrity ('Joint Committee').

The Joint Committee is a current standing committee of the Tasmanian Parliament, established under section 23 of the Integrity Commission Act. The committee has 6 members across both Houses of Parliament.

The Joint Committee’s main role is to monitor and review the functions of integrity entities as defined in the Integrity Commission Act; being the Integrity Commission, the Tasmanian Ombudsman and the Custodial Inspector. Specifically, the Joint Committee can:

monitor and review, and provide guidance and advice on the performance of the Commission's functions
refer matters to us for investigation and advice, and
report to Parliament on matters relevant to the Commission's functions.

However, the Joint Committee cannot:

investigate matters relating to complaints being dealt with by the Commission
review a decision we have made to investigate, not investigate or discontinue an investigation into a complaint, or
make findings, determinations, recommendations or decisions in relation to a particular investigation or inquiry of a complaint that is being, or has been, dealt with by the Commission.

Here to stay

We opened in 2010 and are a cornerstone of Tasmania’s integrity system. The Commission was established under the Integrity Commission Act.

The legislation and the role of the Commission were comprehensively reviewed after 5 years by the Hon William Cox AC, ED, QC, including taking account of a wide range of submissions. His review report concluded that the role and functions of the Commission should continue, with some amendments. All submissions are available on the Integrity Commission Act Review website.

The Tasmanian community has demonstrated a consistently high level of support for the role of the Commission in surveys conducted by an independent research company.

Our policies

The Commission operates under a robust policy framework. The following policies have been published in the public interest.

If you are interested in a different policy, please contact us to request access.