Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Reid for her question, and I congratulate her on her victory at the election and her wonderful first speech. We are so much the better for having her as a member of our team.

Social media and the internet have completely changed our lives. We've seen information spread around the world today in a way we would barely have been able to imagine 30 years ago—but so has misinformation. What that has done has undermined a sense of the objective truth, which in turn has put unprecedented pressure on democracies. So there has never been a more important time for measures which build public confidence in government, in what we do and in the standards of probity and ethics which guide our behaviour.

Tomorrow, the Albanese government will introduce into this parliament a bill to establish an anti-corruption commission at a federal level. It's a long time coming. It should be bipartisan. Those opposite promised to deliver it, but in the last three years of their government not a word of legislation was presented to this House. The bill that we will introduce tomorrow will provide for a commission with teeth, with independent powers of investigation. It will require the commission to act with due process. But, in the process, it will increase the standards of ethics and probity for all public officials at a federal level. As we all know, the Commonwealth is the only jurisdiction in the country which does not have an anti-corruption commission, despite the fact that the Commonwealth is the largest and most consequential jurisdiction in the Federation.

This legislation will provide an opportunity for every member of this House to pin their colours to the mast as to where they stand on the question of probity and ethics in government. On the Labor side, we really look forward to that opportunity, because tomorrow will be the culmination of four years of campaigning. I know that, for members on the government side and, indeed, those on the frontbench, this issue goes to the very heart of the compact of trust that they have with their own constituency. Labor understands that, to defend democracy around the world, we need to start by building the resilience of our democracy at home. The establishment of an anti-corruption commission will do exactly that.

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