Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This is a good day for democracy that has been a long time coming, and I for one am very happy to be here for it. I say that as someone who was the first person to introduce into this House a bill for the establishment of an anticorruption commission. I think back then, almost a decade ago, of the people who are here now it was the member for Clark and I who were its only cheerleaders. Over time others have come on board with the need to get integrity into politics and have a strong anticorruption watchdog with teeth, and I really welcome that.

In marking this historic moment I pay tribute to on my side of politics not only my predecessors Bob Brown and Christine Milne, who pushed for legislation for an anticorruption commission, but also Senator Larissa Waters and Senator David Shoebridge and to note that, in the teeth of fierce opposition from the coalition government last time, Senator Waters managed to get an anticorruption commission bill passed by the Senate, and it could have been voted on in the last parliament, were not for the fact that the then government continued to oppose it and fight it tooth and nail. I acknowledge the government for bringing this important bill in, and for bringing it in so quickly, so that we will have an anticorruption watchdog by Christmas. It was an election pledge and one that has been kept, and they deserve to be acknowledged for bringing that in, and for bringing it in a timely manner that means we can get it under way as soon as possible.

For the rest of the crossbench, I pay tribute to the former member for Indi Cathy McGowan and her work in continuing to pursue this in the face of fierce opposition, for continuing to pursue it because it was the right thing to do, and for helping us build up that model. I also pay tribute to the current member for Indi, Helen Haines, for continuing to work in the previous parliament with those of goodwill and those who wanted action to ensure that we ended up with the model that built on our bill, helped inform the bill that passed the Senate and helped inform the bill that we have here now. I place on record my acknowledgement of that work.

This is not only an historic moment of passing the bill—

A government member: No mention of the Attorney-General?

I mentioned the government, if the previous member was listening. It's always good to have comments from the government cheap seats who aren't listening to what's being said.

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