Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Attorney-General, I want to take you to something you mentioned in your opening remarks and also something touched on by the member for Wentworth. I was pleased to see in the October budget that $262.6 million has been set aside for the establishment and ongoing operation of the Albanese Labor government's National Anti-Corruption Commission. It's really important that this commission has the resources it needs to investigate referrals and complaints in a timely way.

I was also happy to see that there is funding provided for the NACC to undertake corruption prevention and education. The Labor government is committed to tackling corruption and restoring trust and integrity to federal politics. Obviously, it was a great day for Australian democracy when you introduced that legislation to establish a transparent and independent NACC, delivering on that core election commitment. It follows the unanimous report of the Joint Select Committee on National Anti-Corruption Commission Legislation in supporting the bill. I'm looking forward to seeing that bill pass the House and move one step closer to becoming law early in December, hopefully, or very late in November.

Earlier this year, Australians had much less reason to hope that the country would see a powerful, independent and properly resourced anticorruption commission, because the Morrison government also committed to establishing an anticorruption commission but never actually delivered on that promise. On 13 December 2018 the member for Cook stood up with former Attorney-General Christian Porter to announce their plan for an anticorruption commission. They promised Australians, in public, that the commission would be given 'real resources and real teeth'. What we got, however, was a bill that never went beyond a draft and a model that integrity experts described as the weakest watchdog in the country, that would hide corruption and not expose it.

Obviously, the Morrison government was never serious about fighting corruption, which is why it never followed through on the promise made to the Australian people. The Morrison government's proposal was also woefully underfunded. In April this year Dr Catherine Williams, Research Director at the Centre for Public Integrity, said of the former government's funding package:

The Government committed to establishing a Commonwealth Integrity Commission 3 years ago. The lack of sufficient funding shows that the Government is not serious about delivering on its promise.

The Centre for Public Integrity also highlighted cuts made by the previous government to other integrity bodies, such as the Australian National Audit Office and the Ombudsman. Both of them are important, but I would suggest the National Audit Office is particularly so.

All that underfunding is emblematic of the Morrison government's tendency to hide from scrutiny and oversight. The Albanese Labor government takes such things seriously, demonstrated by the fact that the $262.6 million delivered in the October budget is almost $90 million more than the previous Morrison government allocated to its unlegislated commission. I congratulate the Attorney-General for setting up a commission with real powers, real funding and real teeth. My question is: how will the $262.6 million allocated in the October budget ensure that the commission has the resources it needs to track down and stamp out corruption in the Commonwealth public sector?

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