ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury has claimed Prime Minister Scott Morrison sold Canberrans short on an anti-corruption proposal to ensure the territory's new integrity commission oversees local police.
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Mr Rattenbury made the comments after reports Mr Morrison had rejected Chief Minister Andrew Barr's call for legislative changes to allow the oversight in a letter sent late last month.
While Mr Morrison has not commented on the matter to date, federal Labor leader Bill Shorten was also non-committal on whether he would put legislation before the parliament to make the changes, should Labor win the impending election.
The federal parliament would need to pass changes to the ACT's self-government act to allow the territory's incoming integrity commission to investigate allegations concerning ACT Policing staff, as the local police is contracted from the federal police.
Mr Rattenbury said on Tuesday Mr Morrison's response to Mr Barr's letters - which endorsed recommendations from a lengthy, tripartite Legislative Assembly inquiry into the issue - showed he was "selling Canberrans short" on integrity.
The Greens leader said such amendments to the current federal laws would be simple to draft and could include a memorandum of understanding between the ACT commission and existing Commonwealth oversight bodies to ensure they did not cross jurisdictions.
Mr Rattenbury said he was bitterly disappointed the Prime Minister had not seemed to have learnt the lessons of various Royal Commissions and inquiries across the nation, notably Queensland's Fitzgerald inquiry, which plumbed the depths of corruption in that state's police force in the late 1980s.
While Mr Morrison's letter rejected the changes the territory has been pushing for, it did propose to work on other measures to amend national surveillance laws to allow the ACT commission to more fully investigate allegations.
Mr Morrison's letter also raised concerns about the practical and legal implications of changing the legislation and the "delineation" between federal police and ACT Policing.
Asked about the proposal on Tuesday at a press conference with Mr Barr, Mr Shorten would not commit either way, instead saying he would start off by picking up the phone to talk to Mr Barr, as the ACT had a legitimate interest in the issue.
"It’s just arrogant just to, it’s what people hate about politics, one bloke in one building sending an email saying none of your business to someone else when in fact it’s all of our business," he said.
But Mr Shorten also reiterated Mr Morrison's concerns that there were already existing oversight mechanisms for federal police in place, and while Labor had committed to a national anti-corruption commission, he would work with the ACT on the matter.
Mr Barr said he would need to wait and see if Labor was elected federally, and that part of the answer depended on the structure of Labor's proposed national commission, but he was pleased to have a conversation with Mr Shorten and "not just a dismissive letter".
Mr Rattenbury said he remained concerned at both the expected weaknesses in the Morrison government's proposed commission, and the lack of detail on Labor's proposal, but he would now have to wait until after the federal election.
