Victoria's ombudsman and Premier Daniel Andrews are at loggerheads, with the integrity watchdog boss insisting she lacks enough funding to hold the government to account.
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Ombudsman Deborah Glass is adamant her department has been allocated about $2 million less in last week's budget than it spent last financial year when forced to run at a deficit.
Ms Glass' office is investigating allegations of branch stacking in Victorian Labor and she said the optics weren't good for the state government.
"I can't say this is deliberate ... but the appearance of it is really poor," she told ABC radio on Wednesday.
"It does absolutely risk looking like attempts to undermine me.
"I've got a proven track record of dealing with serious and sensitive matters, but this will impact my ability to deal with as many as these as I feel I need to."
Ms Glass said financing integrity agencies should be above the politics of the day and she doesn't want to "be one of those agency heads that's always bleating about their funding".
"Given the amount of money they're spending on inquiries and royal commissions, given the increasing concern in the accountability of government, I shouldn't have to make these kinds of statements," she said.
"It should be a given, but it isn't."
That prompted an angry response from the premier, who said Ms Glass' claims were "not true, not factual, not accurate".
"The reality of this matter is those claims, that rhetoric, that commentary, has no basic in fact whatsoever," he said.
Despite butting heads over the budget allocation, Mr Andrews was adamant the ombudsman retained his confidence.
"I don't see those two things as mutually exclusive."
Ms Glass predicted the government repudiation, saying the published budget figures gave the wrong impression as the starting position was less than last year's eventual spend.
"Although most years I usually get it, it means I can't plan, I can't invest and this year I simply don't have the funding I need to do the job that I think everybody expects me to do," she said.
"That's going to impact on the investigations I'm able to choose to do, as well as the ability to do new functions which the parliament has given me."
It's not the first time this year an integrity agency has hit out at lack of funding, with the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission saying its budget had remained "largely static" since being founded in 2012.
Commissioner Robert Redlich QC said in October that it had resulted in a significant number of complaints of serious misconduct going uninvestigated.
Australian Associated Press
