{"id":83397,"date":"2026-08-30T13:31:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T13:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/83397\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T13:31:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T13:31:20","slug":"secret-rail-levy-could-be-corruption-under-expanded-definition-ex-ibac-chief-robert-redlich-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/83397\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret rail levy could be corruption under expanded definition, ex-IBAC chief Robert Redlich says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victorian Labor\u2019s secret rail levy<\/a> to help fund the Suburban Rail Loop may amount to corruption under expanded integrity laws promised by Ben Carroll, a former head of the state\u2019s anti-corruption watchdog says.<\/p>\n

The Premier last week scrapped the Rail Improvement Charge after it was exposed by the Victorian Auditor-General\u2019s Office, which delivered a scathing assessment of the government\u2019s funding model and lack of transparency surrounding the $34.5bn first stage of the SRL.<\/p>\n

Mr Carroll is under increasing pressure to detail what he knew and when about the levy, which was devised by Daniel Andrews in 2021 and implemented under Jacinta Allan in late 2024 when Mr Carroll was deputy premier. <\/p>\n

It would have raised $8bn by 2062 despite never being publicly disclosed by Mr Andrews and Ms Allan.<\/p>\n

Robert Redlich, a former Supreme Court judge who was commissioner of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission from 2018 to 2022, said it may well be that the RIC was imposed for improper motives that did not serve the public interest. If so, it would constitute a \u201cbreach of public trust\u201d under the broader definitions of corruption used by the federal National Anti-Corruption Commission and NSW\u2019s Independent Commission Against Corruption.<\/p>\n

Mr Carroll has pledged to broaden the definition of corrupt conduct investigated by IBAC to capture forms of \u201csoft corruption\u201d that can be pursued by the NACC and ICAC, including breaches of public trust, with a wider remit to operate retrospectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe RIC is one means of contributing to the funding of the Suburban Rail Loop,\u201d Mr Redlich told The Australian. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe secret charge taxing transport users may have been imposed for improper motives that did not serve the public interest. Such conduct, if established, would fall within IBAC\u2019s proposed expanded jurisdiction \u2013 assuming it takes a similar form to the ICAC and the NACC \u2013 and IBAC would have jurisdiction to investigate and determine the motives and knowledge of those deciding to implement the charges in order to determine whether it constituted corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Redlich\u2019s comments raise the prospect that circumstances surrounding the secret levy could come under scrutiny from Victoria\u2019s royal commission into the construction sector<\/a>, amid calls for that inquiry to examine the planning and governance of major infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

Mr Redlich, now chair of the Accountability Round Table, pointed to previous criticism of the SRL by former Victorian ombudsman Deborah Glass and VAGO, including concerns over its business case, planning and transparency. Mr Redlich and Ms Glass this month called for the royal commission to scrutinise the way major infrastructure projects were conceived and approved, noting that the absence of proper integrated planning of transport, land use and infrastructure could contribute to the risk of corruption and misconduct.<\/p>\n

The VAGO report uncovered the 1 per cent tax Victorians unknowingly have paid since January 2025 as part of its review into SRL East, finding it would have raised $8bn by 2062. The government initially had planned for 60\u00a0per cent of the levy\u2019s revenue \u2013 about $4.8bn \u2013 to go to SRL East.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the case of the SRL, the former ombudsman and VAGO have reported on the unsatisfactory features of the SRL,\u201d Mr Redlich said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch has been said about the absence of a proper and sound business case, wholly inadequate consultation, no transparency and no integrated planning of transport, land use and infrastructure, which has been a legislative requirement for such major projects since 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe secretive RIC may be an illustration of the serious consequences that follow when proper planning process and governance is not followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Carroll on Sunday said the royal commission had the \u201cbroadest terms possible, and nothing is off limits\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also said it was the \u201cintention\u201d that the expanded definition of corrupt conduct and \u201cfollow-the-dollar\u201d powers for IBAC be retrospective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working very hard to expand the definition of corruption in this state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Anti-corruption expert Geoffrey Watson said the Carroll government should conduct an internal inquiry into how the levy was devised and approved, and then tell the public what had happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may well be that within the next few days we get all the paperwork which will tell us exactly what happened,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut at this stage, I just think that it\u2019s better that the issue \u2026 be explored, and in the interests of transparency, as much information given over to the public as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Watson said there didn\u2019t appear to be \u201cany explanation\u201d for the secret levy that \u201ccould have an innocent complexion\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you did that and you were a public company, you\u2019d be prosecuted for breaches of your duties to shareholders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the shareholders here are the Victorian public. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the government itself is excluding things from their accounting \u2013 I\u2019m not going to call it a crime, I\u2019m going to call it unjustifiably bad practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple senior Labor sources have confirmed to The Australian that Mr Carroll and Deputy Premier Gabrielle Williams as ministers were aware of the existence of the levy. It was devised and approved by the budget and finance committee, of which Mr Carroll was a member since 2024.<\/p>\n

There are differing recollections over whether the levy ever went to a meeting of the entire cabinet.<\/p>\n

\"Anthony<\/a>Anthony Galloway<\/a>Victorian political editor <\/p>\n

Anthony Galloway is The Australian’s Victorian political editor, having reported on
\nsome of the nation\u2019s biggest security and political stories over the past decade. He was previously foreign affairs and national security correspondent at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, chief political correspondent at Capital Brief and earlier a political reporter at the Herald Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victorian Labor\u2019s secret rail levy to help fund the Suburban Rail Loop may amount to corruption under 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