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

Thanks very much, Mr Speaker. Let's move away from the royal commission. When Labor came to government, it was very clear that there was an urgent need to restore integrity and transparency, which had been so badly eroded by the former Liberal government. The former Liberal government reneged on that promise to establish a national anticorruption commission. They ignored calls for a robo-debt royal commission, and now we know why. The Albanese Labor government have been left with a very big clean-up job to do but we have already made important progress, including by legislating for a national anticorruption commission that will be up and running in coming months.

The robo-debt debacle is just one shocking example of what can happen when governments throw accountability aside, when they act as if they are above the law. It must never happen again.

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