Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. When will the Prime Minister introduce legislation into this parliament to establish the Commonwealth Integrity Commission that he promised last year?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have been through this a number of times and the reality is that we have taken time and care. A draft is well advanced. That will go out to public consultation. Of course, it was the case that members opposite said that when they came into government they would take 12 full months of consultation before presenting a draft. We'll do it well within that time. It's also the case that in matters of this type you must be very careful to ensure that you get it absolutely, utterly and precisely correct, which is what we will be doing.

To be fair to the crossbench, they have brought in two models for an integrity commission. They brought in one in the previous parliament. That was sensibly voted against by the Labor Party, that particular model. I say respectfully that that model was not the correct model. We will make sure that the model that is presented is the correct model. What is very interesting, though, is that another bill was introduced in the Senate by the Greens—basically, precisely the same model that was introduced in the previous parliament. Interestingly, this time Labor voted for it—against that model in the last parliament; for the model in this parliament in the Senate. It couldn't possibly be, Leader of the Opposition, that you were having a few integrity issues at the time? It couldn't possibly be that. It couldn't possibly be the case that, just as you have flip-flopped on border protection, just as you flip-flop on all other issues, just as you flip-flop on taxation—

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

The Attorney-General will resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was a very short and very specific question of when the government will introduce the Commonwealth Integrity Commission legislation. If they stopped concentrating on 'wedgislation' and actually did their job, they might be better off.

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

The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. I know the point the Leader of the Opposition is making, but the Attorney, I believe, was directly relevant to that, certainly at the beginning of his answer. He wasn't asked about any other topics but he is briefly relating them to the topic, which is a difference between his answer and some other answers recently, so I'm going to keep hearing the Attorney.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the minute and a bit left remaining I might make this note about integrity, which is led by that man of integrity the shadow Attorney-General. Not that long ago the shadow Attorney-General, late in the evening of Wednesday 31 July, came into the House and made some vigorous complaint about some signage that had been put out by a member of our side, the government, during the election. He complained that the colours were too close to that of another organisation. He said that there was barely perceptible script at the bottom which indicated the signs were authorised by the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party. He said it was sneaky. What is utterly fascinating is that the champion of integrity, who complains about signage and small script, using the colours of another organisation—

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Which one?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Which one?

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

The Leader of the Opposition—

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They don't like this, do they?

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

I don't like it, either, because it is off the topic of the question. I'm just going to say—

Mr Albanese interjecting—

You don't have the call. I'm actually trying to assist the Leader of the Opposition, because one of the standing order reforms that he brought in was that there could only be one point of order on a question of relevance, which he's had. I'm going to say to the Attorney that I allowed him to relate other policy topics to the matter, but he's now going too far. His linkage to the mere word of integrity is broken, I have to say. It really is. If he wants to deal with this sort of material, he has to be asked another question, to be frank.