South Australia's outgoing Independent Commissioner Against Corruption (ICAC) has declined to name the three state MPs at the centre of a criminal investigation.
Speaking on his final day as the state's first anti-corruption commissioner, Bruce Lander confirmed that three MPs were under criminal investigation in relation to their use of the Country Members Accommodation Allowance.
An ABC investigation sparked the ICAC probe into the use of the allowance by a number of regional MPs.
The allowance provides $234 a night for MPs who live at least 75 kilometres away from the General Post Office in the centre of Adelaide's CBD.
Some MPs have sought to invoke parliamentary privilege to limit the ICAC's access to documents and other evidence for the investigation.
Mr Lander said the integrity of South Australia's Parliament would be at stake when it returns next week and considers whether parliamentary privilege extends to protecting MPs from criminal investigation.
But he stressed that only Parliament had the right to make that decision.
"It [goes to] the integrity of Parliament and the integrity of its members — whether the Parliament thinks [it] would be appropriate to protect people from a criminal investigation because free speech demands it," he told ABC Radio Adelaide.
Mr Lander argued that the purpose of parliamentary privilege was to ensure that free speech was not curtailed by the courts — not to protect MPs against investigation.
However he said he had to "respect the supremacy of Parliament".
"I can't act in a way that would be inconsistent with that," he said.
The commissioner declined to name the three MPs under investigation, but gave new details about the kinds of evidence his investigation had been seeking.
"I want documents relating to the usual place of residence, the reasons why they were in Adelaide and what expenses were actually incurred in the overnight stay," he said.
Mr Lander added that he thought it likely his successor, former Supreme Court judge Ann Vanstone, would continue the investigation.
Bruce Lander's legacy
Mr Lander's tenure since his appointment in 2013 has been punctuated by major investigations that have rocked the state's institutions of government.
His 2015 investigation into the controversial, $135 million Gillman land deal found two Renewal SA executives had engaged in maladministration.
Mr Lander's damning 2018 report into the Oakden nursing home — where patients were abused over a decade — made findings of maladministration against five individuals and prompted a public apology from then-premier Jay Weatherill.
In November the following year, Mr Lander released a report into South Australia's Health department, warning that it was "ripe for exploitation by corrupt employees" and detailing concerns about the way it functions.
The report described a culture within SA Health that enabled misconduct and silenced dissent, where conflicts of interest were dealt with inconsistently and where top doctors wielded outsized power, undermining the department's ability to monitor their performance.
The Marshall Government responded by appointing a taskforce to address the concerns, but declined to provide ICAC the funding Mr Lander said his office needed to evaluate the Central Adelaide Local Health Network.
