Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is nice to rise on the Public Service Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2024. I must say it is quite ironic that I rise to speak on a bill about conducting inquiries into potential breaches of the APS Code of Conduct and integrity at the same time as I should have been speaking about the CFMEU and integrity within the CFMEU. But those opposite chose to gag debate on that bill, so we're now talking about this important bill.

We're looking to understand the importance of integrity. We do need to make sure that this goes through and that the Public Service is held to a high standard. That is something that is very important. As the member for Sturt opposite said, we weren't able to get a full briefing on this bill, so it is important that we get this briefing to understand the details of what happens, because the act does not currently clarify whether such inquiries can be conducted on individuals who are no longer agency heads. This causes uncertainty within the act. It articulates the power to conduct inquiries into breaches by APS employees or former APS employees and breaches by an agency head, but it is silent on former agency heads. It is so crucial that we bring this through because, even if you are no longer an agency head, you should still be held to account, much like, if you were no longer the head of the CFMEU, like John Setka, you should be held to account. That's what we need to do in this House. We need to ensure integrity across services. We need to ensure integrity within the Public Service and also within the unions.

As we said, the coalition was able to ensure that 20 amendments were made to the bill that was gagged and rushed through the House. They improved that bill and made sure that there was some level of integrity for the CFMEU. While we're talking about integrity in this bill, I will watch interest as a Victorian to see whether this extends to the TWU you and HSU. We've seen in Victoria that senior officials need to step down because of questions about their conduct within those roles.

So we've just had the CFMEU that we've dealt with. We're now talking about integrity within the Public Service. We are talking about integrity in the Public Service, and the government are on a roll: two bills in a row talking about integrity within the Public Service and within the union movement. It's important that we talk about the wider union movement because we do know, Member for Fremantle, that the union movement works closely with the Public Service. They're very linked. You need integrity within our Public Service and integrity within our union movement. You looked a bit bemused, Member for Fremantle, and I understand that, as a Western Australian, you might not be across the issues of the Victorian union movement, but I suggest you look at the actions of the TWU, the HSU and some of those leaders that have had to step down—three unions in one state. It is so important that we look at retrospectivity, as I said.

This is an important bill that will hold the Public Service to account. There are things that we need to understand and, as I said, it's hard to talk in detail about this because the coalition hasn't received a briefing on the legislation. This will potentially identify more issues than those that have been talked about. Obviously, while retrospectivity is important, it also does create some challenges, so we need to understand what other referrals could be looked at and what agency heads are included under this bill, because the bill looks at retrospectivity back to 7 July 2023. That's a date that this government have chosen.

It goes back to the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, which seems to make sense, but it does raise a question: 7 July 2023 is the date that those opposite have chosen, but what happens through this process if misconduct is found on 6 July 2023? What happens if misconduct is found on 5 July 2023 or 2022? Why is 7 July the magic date? Surely if we're going to look back, we should choose to make sure that all things are covered and all the behaviour of public servants is called for, because, as I said, it's important that we do have strong integrity measures at all times.

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