Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the member for Mackellar's considered amendments to this important legislation. There is no debate in this House about the need for an independent standards commission. We are all in furious agreement about that and welcome this legislation in most of its detail. But, as I spoke about on previous amendments, this is not the ideal piece of legislation, and, when we've taken this amount of time to finally establish such a commission, we should be working towards getting this right. Part of the getting it right is ensuring, again, that we have the guardrails, the safeguards and the transparency around who the important commissioners are on this commission.

What the member for Mackellar has been trying to achieve throughout her term in this parliament is the eradication of this pernicious culture of jobs for mates. We've seen it play out time and time again across many, many decades, and, again, the people of Australia are asking us to do better. The minister quite rightly laid out the very detailed qualifications, the resumes that would be required in order for someone to be successful in applying for such a position on this commission. I've got no argument with that. What the member for Mackellar is adding to this debate is an arm's-length transparency mechanism to ensure that there are no political imperatives when it comes to who is appointed to such a commission, and that really matters. It really matters. Many people in this House have spoken to the importance of fairness, of ensuring that no member of parliament's reputation is besmirched unnecessarily. There has been an enormous consultation to try and get this legislation right, and we're nearly there.

In my second reading speech I spoke of the gratitude I feel for the many people who have contributed to getting us to this point, but, again, I would say to this parliament: take the next step. Get it right while we have the chance to do so. The member for Mackellar is quite right in her argumentation about why these amendments matters, so I stand in support of her today on this one. We have the chance; we should get it completely right, and that amount of getting it right matters to the people who put us in this place. I commend her amendments and I encourage members of parliament to, likewise, support her in her endeavours.

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