Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I rise to introduce the National Integrity Commission Bill 2019. This bill is essential for the future of our democracy. We desperately need a national ICAC.

Not a week goes by in Australian politics without the case mounting further for the need for a national anticorruption watchdog. In recent weeks and months, Australians have been forced to watch as scandal after scandal continues to plague politics in this country. There's the revolving door between the senior members of the major parties and the lobbyists who roam these halls, a Murray-Darling Basin Plan which breaches the Water Act, Aldi bags full of cash arriving at political party offices, major contracts and grants delivered through closed tender processes, fast-track visas for high-roller customers at Crown Casino who just happen to be major donors to both Labor and Liberal.

These are the reasons why so many people around this country, including the Greens and myself, believe we need a National Integrity Commission to be an anticorruption watchdog that can actually hold members of this place to account. This is why we have been introducing bills to create a national anticorruption watchdog for almost 10 years, despite the opposition of several from the old parties along the way, and why I introduced the first bill for an anticorruption commission into this House back in 2012. With this bill today, we can see a long-lasting reform of our laws to deal with corruption and integrity. This bill creates a national commission through the establishment of a national office of integrity commissioner comprising three elements: the National Integrity Commission, the existing Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and the new office of the independent parliamentary adviser.

The National Integrity Commission in this bill would be established as an independent statutory agency. The bill builds into a comprehensive legislative framework a critical addition to the national integrity system through the establishment of a National Integrity Commission to enable the investigation and prevention of misconduct and corruption in all Commonwealth departments and agencies and by federal parliamentarians and their staff.

This bill brings together and co-locates this function with the independent oversight functions of the law enforcement integrity commission for the investigation and prevention of corruption in the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission, thus creating an integrated federal approach to misconduct and corruption in the parliament and the Public Service.

This bill will operate alongside a second bill, which will be introduced into the Senate by my colleague Senator Larissa Waters at a later time, the national integrity (parliamentary standards) bill 2018. Together, it is our intention that these bills will boost confidence in the Commonwealth parliament by equipping it to prevent, manage and resolve its own integrity issues, where possible, while also providing clear pathways for investigation and resolution of serious corruption issues.

Before I proceed to talk a bit more about the bill, I want to pay tribute in particular to the former member for Indi, Cathy McGowan, and also to the current member for Mayo and other current members of the crossbench. I said earlier on that I was the first one to introduce a national integrity commission bill into this House, several years ago. Since then the case has only grown. The other members of the crossbench, current and former, have been the ones who have taken up the running to make this a reality. We now stand in a position where we have changed the mind of one of the old parties in this place, and I think it will only be a matter of time before we change the mind of the other one—it is currently sitting on the government benches at the moment—because the Australian people want a national integrity commission with teeth. The Australian people want a corruption watchdog. One of the things about the crossbench is that we will bring to this place without fear or favour the reforms that are needed to make our democracy work and to restore trust in this place.

In this country at the moment there is no national corruption agency with the powers or jurisdiction to investigate claims of misconduct and corruption across the federal parliament or Commonwealth agencies. This is not good enough. It can no longer be justified. People have seen in New South Wales in particular that when you have an anticorruption watchdog that's able to investigate all sides of parliament without fear or favour it exposes some very disturbing things—so disturbing, in fact, that members of both the Labor and Liberal parties have found themselves prosecuted as a result of the investigation and convicted in many instances. The question is: if that is what is happening at the New South Wales level, can we really stand up here and justify to the people of Australia that we think it's somehow not happening at the federal level?

If you think that corruption only stops at state boundaries and somehow doesn't happen here in Canberra then I've got a bridge to sell you! Is the reason we don't hear about claims of misconduct or corruption at a federal level precisely because there isn't a national watchdog that is able to investigate and hold people at the Commonwealth level to account?

Public trust in parliaments and in our institutions is at an all-time low. In 2007, 86 per cent of Australians had trust in our democracy, but by late last year it had plummeted to just 41 per cent. Our constituents across the country are tuning out and turning off, and, given recent events, who could blame them? It's our job, and our job alone, to try to restore people's faith in the work that we are doing and in our system of democracy. One of the best ways that we can do that would be to ensure that there is a federal anticorruption watchdog that can hold every one of us to account, and that can hold everyone at the federal level, at the highest levels of our federal bureaucracy, to account as well. This is key to restoring public faith in our democracy.

People say, 'Why is there an anticorruption commission at the state level but not at the federal level?' and there is no good answer to that question. It is time for us to fix it. We need to reform a number of things in this place. We need to reform our donations laws and we need to stop the revolving door between politicians and big business, but we also need an anticorruption watchdog. This is an integral part of that reform to restore faith and transparency in our democracy.

The argument that existing agencies and mechanisms are sufficient or appropriate for fighting graft ignores the reality of the situation that we currently face, alongside the important role of prevention, the promotion of ethical conduct and the integration of integrity systems across federal and state jurisdictions. In July, Australians were shocked by the Crown casino high-roller scandal, and after days of public pressure what did the government do? It referred allegations of ministerial misconduct to a body that can't investigate ministers or former ministers. The current system is not up to the task.

This bill will operate in a federal jurisdiction and it won't override or replace state legislation. It provides for the ACT and Northern Territory to contract the national integrity commissioner to operate in respect of their territories, in the same way that the Commonwealth Ombudsman acts as the ACT Ombudsman. And the national commission established by this bill will complement the state based anticorruption commissions.

The need to address corruption becomes even clearer when we compare our federal system to the states. All Australian states have established, or are committed to establishing, anticorruption bodies with various powers in jurisdictions. Importantly, they all include the power to investigate the activities of politicians. The evidence of the powerful and effective work of the state based anticorruption bodies reinforces the need for a similar mechanism at the federal level of Australian politics. This bill states what we mean by corrupt conduct, so that people know what it is and can be held to account for it. It is defined as including any conduct that adversely affects the honest or impartial exercise of official functions by the parliament, a Commonwealth agency, any public official or any group or body of public officials; or involves the dishonest exercise of functions by a public official; or involves a breach of public trust by a public official or perverts the cause of justice; or involves the misuse of information or material by a public official.

It lists all kinds of corrupt conduct, such as blackmail, bribery and fraud for the purpose of adversely affecting the exercise of functions by parliament, a Commonwealth agency or public officials, and provides for retrospectivity and that the national integrity commissioner can investigate corrupt conduct that occurred before the commencement of the bill, or before a person became a public official or outside of Australia.

We don't bring this bill here because we think these corridors are necessarily full of people who are corrupt, and the same is true for our public servants. We are lucky in Australia to be characterised by, I believe, overwhelmingly honest public servants and people who come into federal politics with the best of intention. But if there is wrongdoing at the state level, it stands to reason that there is a good chance of wrongdoing at the federal level and we need a watchdog to root that out.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the member for Melbourne's motion and reserve my right to speak.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.