Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm astounded at that last contribution to the House, by the member for Werriwa. The Labor Party, in true Labor Party style, when they come into government, complain about something we didn't do, when they blocked us continuously when we were in government. The hypocrisy of those on the other side of the House leaves me speechless. But I'll move on, because I do have a lot to say. When we were in government we brought these measures to the parliament because we believe in combating foreign bribery. Why is this important? Well, we live in a very uncertain world right now. In the Australian parliament, when we were in government, we committed to spending $210 billion on critical defence procurement, whether aircraft, vehicles, ships or submarines. There is no doubt that we are living in the most geopolitically unstable period since 1945. The Australian government, along with a lot of other governments around the world, is spending a lot of money on defence, and understandably so.

This bill, the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combating Foreign Bribery) Bill, is so important, and the best example of why it is so important is a deferred prosecution brought by the US Department of Justice against Airbus, which fined Airbus a record $3.9 billion for actions that Airbus have taken to, effectively, bribe US and foreign officials in order to win and maintain defence contracts. Just remember that—$3.9 billion. It's the largest fine ever, and it was done under a deferred prosecution agreement.

This bill will further the aim we had when we were in government to strengthen the legal framework for prosecuting foreign bribery. I'm not disappointed to see this bill come before the House, but I am disappointed to see the political gamesmanship that is being brought by the other side. I'm not complaining that they're copying our homework—the best form of flattery is imitation—but they have left some very important parts out of this bill. Members opposite need to reconsider the importance of adding a deferred prosecution scheme to make the enforcement of foreign bribery offences more effective. We're committed to moving amendments to that end, and we ask those opposite to wake up to themselves, stop playing petty politics and accept those amendments.

The fight against bribery and corruption is something that the coalition has been dedicated to and focused on for decades. At the last election, members opposite came to government on a platform of integrity and accountability, but, when push comes to shove, they are not prepared to do what is right—they are not prepared to put their money where their mouth is and introduce legislation which provides for integrity, accountability and transparency.

In 1999 we introduced Australia's first foreign bribery offences into the Criminal Code—'we' being the now opposition. In the Howard years we ratified the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. In 2017 we introduced the very measures that we are debating today. Between Labor's petty politics and the 2019 federal election, those measures lapsed, but we believe in the fight against bribery and corruption. That's why we reintroduced those measures in 2019, and we were again confronted by Labor's political games. Time and again, Labor tout themselves as the be-all and end-all for transparency.

This federal Labor government is clearly plotting the same course as the Queensland Labor government, and that is to hide and obfuscate. These measures should already be the law of the land, but Labor did everything it could to delay action on foreign bribery. Their approach to these measures has been nothing short of incompetence and obfuscation. Their performance in the previous parliament shows it plain and simple. The Labor Party wanted to put on hold legislation to address serious white-collar crime, and that was demonstrated in a parliamentary inquiry in the last parliament. Labor's dissenting report to that inquiry recommended the removal of key parts of the bill.

They spent the lifetime of two parliaments trying to derail this legislation. Then, they spent six weeks, in an election campaign, arguing about integrity. Now, in government, they are finally coming to the table. They're finally ready to redress white-collar crime, after nearly 18 months in office. But they come with a weaker solution and an even weaker commitment to good government and real change. The government are nothing more than political phoneys, and Australians see right through their nasty tricks and politics. The issue of foreign bribery—

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