Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Boothby for her question. It was former prime minister Paul Keating who said, 'When you change the government, you change the country.' On 21 May the Australian people voted to change the government, and today the Australian parliament has voted for a reform which will change the country. The Albanese Labor government was elected with a very, very clear mandate to deliver a national anticorruption commission with teeth and without delay. We said we would legislate this year, and today we did.

That commitment has been honoured in full. The commission will be able to investigate serious or systemic corruption across the entire federal public sector. The commission will have the necessary powers to root out corruption when it occurs, and, importantly, the commission will be able to work to prevent corruption from happening in the first place. It will improve standards of transparency and integrity in this place. It'll go a long way towards restoring the bond of trust between elected representatives and voters, which has been so weakened in recent years.

Today's passage of the National Anti-Corruption Commission bills demonstrates this parliament at its best, which stands in stark contrast to other behaviour this morning, when those opposite failed to join the majority of this House in the censure of the former Prime Minister, the member for Cook, for his atrocious power grab. I would also remind the House that it was those opposite who promised a national anticorruption commission in December 2018 and never delivered.

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