Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for moving this motion, but I want to speak to why the government will not be supporting a suspension of standing orders. The issue does not go to the merits of or the need for a serious and well-considered body to deal with the risk of serious criminal corruption at the Commonwealth level, because I want to be very clear that the government has developed such a model: the Commonwealth Integrity Commission, which is intended to be the lead body in Australia's successful multiagency anticorruption framework. We've gone through a very detailed consultation process—333 written submissions received, 46 consultation meetings and round tables—and we stand ready to introduce that legislation. We've done the detailed work. We've committed almost $150 million of funding to the Commonwealth Integrity Commission. We project it will have around 172 staff. And we've already implemented phase 1 of our plans by expanding the jurisdiction of the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.

I want to make a couple of things clear, because there have been some misleading claims made about the government's proposal. In the model we are proposing, the Commonwealth Integrity Commission will be able to investigate past conduct and matters that occurred prior to its commencement. The Integrity Commission will be able to look into past conduct that falls within the scope of its jurisdiction. This will include over 145 criminal offences that presently exist in legislation, including, for example, under the Criminal Code Act, under the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act and under the Public Interest Disclosure Act. The government will also, under our proposal, create new offences relating to corrupt conduct, including concealing corruption and repeated public sector corruption.

I want to make this point very clear as well, because there have been some misleading claims. The model we are proposing will have—

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