While multiple unresolved integrity scandals hang over her head, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro introduced legislation to Parliament on Thursday to establish a new Ethics and Integrity Commission, which she said will “streamline integrity oversight”, but failed to seek any public input on the changes and chose not to refer the proposed bill to the Parliament’s scrutiny committee for bipartisan oversight.

The new commission will involve hiring a new “Integrity and Ethics Commissioner” to oversee a hybrid agency that will merge the current Office of the ICAC, Office of the Ombudsman and the Health and Community Services Complaints Commission, which Ms Finocchiaro said would “reinforce public confidence”.

She also acknowledged that since the Office of the ICAC was established in 2018, the public’s “confidence has been eroded…and critical matters have gone unresolved”.

The move to create the new commission follows a review by ICAC Inspector Bruce McClintock and NT Judge Graham Hiley, initiated in July and completed by August, which recommended consolidating the independent statutory bodies into one agency following “inefficiencies” in all three bodies caused in part by a lack of government funding and inability to hire qualified people.

Ms Finocchiaro said the legislation for the new “super commission”, with which integrity experts have flagged concerns, will see the one new commissioner hold the office and powers of the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption, the Ombudsman, Information Commissioner and Health Complaints Commissioner with conflicts of interest expected to arise.

“This bill is not altering their jurisdiction or their power, this is about ensuring the continuity of functions and powers across current regimes, strengthening integrity structures across the NT, [and] these arrangements will deliver efficiencies, strengthen governance and make the most of limited resources while preserving the independence that is central to the public’s trust,” Ms Finocchiaro said.

“This reform is not a cost-saving measure, it is about improving the resourcing available for these important integrity functions in the Northern Territory. This new model delivers greater accountability, stronger protections and a system focused on outcomes.”

She added the conflicts of interest that will undoubtedly arise for the sole commissioner will be managed by a “built-in mechanism” with responsibility being on the commissioner to identify their conflicts and report them to the inspector, presumed to be Mr McClintock.

While Michael Riches resigned in disgrace as the ICAC in April, Mr McClintock’s Inspector contract is not slated to end until 2028.

Ms Finocchiaro did not say how the new IEC commissioner would be hired or who would sit on the selection panel, only that it will go to a “nation-wide recruitment process”.

Independent MLA Justine Davis said it was “astounding” that the government did not refer the bill to the scrutiny committee for oversight before introducing it to Parliament.

The government intends to pass the bill next month.

“Think about the irony here,” Ms Davis said. “They are introducing legislation that claims to strengthen integrity but refusing to send it through the integrity checks built into our parliamentary process.

“This is a bill that fundamentally reshapes our entire integrity system.

“It appears to consolidate four separate statutory offices…into a single person. That’s an extraordinary concentration of power that deserves the most thorough examination possible, not a rushed debate and refusal of proper scrutiny.”

Ms Davis said she would invite members of the public to make submissions on the new legislation to the “community scrutiny forum” she runs through her social media page.

“Allowing the public input on laws being proposed for them is not the threat the government thinks it is; it strengthens our democracy and it creates a better Territory for everyone,” she said.

Opposition Labor Leader Selena Uibo attempted to move a motion to refer the bill to the legislation scrutiny committee but was shut down by the Speaker before she could introduce it. She said the scrutiny committee could test the legislation “with expert input and community oversight”.

“It’s hard to imagine anything more ironic or more hypocritical than a government refusing scrutiny on its own integrity bill,” she said.

“That’s not transparency, that’s not accountability and Territorians deserve better. The ICAC’s reputation has been damaged and restoring trust means doing the work properly, thoroughly and transparently.”

Ms Finocchiaro said the powers and existing legislation underpinning the integrity bodies would remain “largely intact”, but did not get into what specific changes the government was looking to make.

“I stress that this reform is not about saving money, it is about strengthening integrity, it is about ensuring that Territorians can continue to have confidence in the institutions that uphold honesty, accountability and transparency in government,” she said.

“I am committed to restoring transparency and integrity to government.”

Long list of unresolved integrity failures continues to grow

Ms Finocchiaro admitted just last week that Education Minister Jo Hersey breached the rules around the use of the taxpayer-funded white car chauffeur service, but refused to publicly release those rules and said the public could have “confidence” in the secret rules being followed.

She also rejected calls for an independent investigation into the taxpayer-funded Darwin Waterfront Corporation’s unresolved allegations of mismanaged conflicts of interest, misuse of taxpayer funds, cronyism, nepotism, widespread governance failures and an unusual overlap of board and executive positions, despite her conflict of interest in the matter.

Ms Finocchiaro has refused to explain why she breached the Disclosures of Interests Act for two years by not disclosing that her husband Sam Burke was the director of a company that received tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars through the Waterfront Corporation where he works as the deputy chief executive.

The Finocchiaro Government pledged to review allegations raised in the recent Four Corners investigation into the dysfunctional regulatory system in the NT that sees the NT Racing and Wagering Commission act as the nation’s de facto online gambling regulator with weak regulations and a “cosy” relationship with industry, but it appears it has backtracked on that pledge.

The government announced in Parliament on Thursday that it would not refer the issues raised in that investigation to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee as requested by Ms Davis.

The government has been silent on a number of other integrity issues, including whether it is looking into RWC chair Alastair Shields’s use of two car park spaces at the Waterfront for his vintage Mercedes collection that has raised tax issues for the corporation and Mr Shields.

The government has refused to properly explain its many hirings of mates for independent statutory roles and its move to amend the Sacred Sites Act to push through a new hotel at the Waterfront precinct against traditional Larrakia elders’ objections arising from a declared sacred site in close proximity.