Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition supports the amendments moved by the member for Fowler. Being called before the National Anti-Corruption Commission would be a very stressful process for individuals. I think, in the public mind, many people think that this commission will be dealing only with members of parliament. The truth is that it will be dealing with a very wide range of Australians. For anybody, being summonsed for questioning is an extremely stressful occasion.

I note the good work of the joint committee on this point, extending the range of people you can consult to include psychologists and medical professionals. I think what the member for Fowler has done here in making it broader, to include any mental health professional, is a good thing, given the availability of psychologists in various parts of Australia; there is a real shortage. Many people who are feeling distraught would want to call an organisation like Lifeline or see a counsellor, and people should be able to do that. It's also particularly oppressive where you have a family member who is not the subject of an investigation and you can't even talk to them about this.

In the context of thinking about the corruption commission and preparing the coalition's position on this I met with people who'd been bereaved by suicide as a result of having family members appear before the commission. I heard stories of people who were not able to tell their family member when they needed to travel interstate to appear before a corruption commission that they had to appear before the commission, for fear of breaching these gag orders. I think these gag orders that have existed at places and the potential for a gag order of this sort to exist at the federal level is oppressive to people. I commend the member for Fowler for these very good amendments, which the coalition supports.

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