Media Releases

Today, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) tabled its 2024/25 Annual Plan outlining its priorities for the next 12 months, which include corrections and youth justice, and high-risk police stations and specialist police teams.

The annual plan identifies five strategic focus areas to guide IBAC’s work to prevent and expose public sector corruption and police misconduct.

The strategic focus areas for 2024/25 are:

• high-risk police stations and specialist police teams
• excessive use of force, including use of force on people at risk (inclusive of use of force by public sector)
• police responses to family violence incidents and predatory behaviour perpetrated by police
• high-risk public sector agencies, including those managing high value matters
• corrections and youth justice.

IBAC Acting CEO Dr Linda Timothy said that a new focus for IBAC next year will be corrections and youth justice due to the unique and inherent corruption risks and vulnerabilities associated with increasing prisoner populations and the outsourcing of prison management and staff.

“As part of this work, we will examine the presence of corruption risks, such as the unlawful use of force in the treatment of children and young people in correction settings,” Dr Timothy said.

IBAC takes a targeted approach to its police oversight role, with a particular focus on the needs of Victorians from communities who are more at risk of experiencing police misconduct.

“Following a successful pilot in 2023/24, we will embed a targeted and more efficient approach for investigating single incident complaints about Victoria Police personnel misconduct on people from communities at a higher risk of experiencing police misconduct including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people living with a disability, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and young people,” Dr Timothy said.

A key part of IBAC’s police oversight role involves reviewing the outcomes of Victoria Police’s internal investigations to ensure they are completed thoroughly and fairly.

“Over the next year, we will focus on reviewing Victoria Police investigations related to police body worn camera use, use of force relating to non-fatal police shootings and family violence incidents, and predatory behaviour perpetrated by police,” Dr Timothy said.

"Along with our own investigations and reviews of Victoria Police investigations, our prevention activities will include the development of resources highlighting risks associated with the rollout of Tasers by Victoria Police.

“In addition, and as part of our work towards preventing public sector corruption in Victoria, we will continue to focus on high-risk public sector agencies. We will target agencies more likely to be vulnerable to corruption because they hold valuable information that could be misused or because they are responsible for high value investments, planning, outsourcing of public services delivery or allocation of funding."

A continued focus in 2024/25 will again be on improving the experience of people who submit complaints. This will be done through staff training, improvements to existing assessment processes, the development of trauma-informed resources and letters as well as accessibility improvements to our online complaint form and anonymous reporting forms.