Dio Wang (WA, Palmer United Party) Share this | Hansard source

Proposals for a national integrity or anticorruption agency in Australia date back to the 1980s. At first they had been quietly repeatedly rejected by the party political duopoly that runs this country. A decade ago a joint study by Griffith University and Transparency International Australia recommended 'a new independent statutory authority to be tasked as a comprehensive lead agency for investigation and prevention of official corruption, criminal activity and serious misconduct involving Commonwealth officials', including, sadly, members of parliament. Transparency International Australia also called for a national anticorruption body after claims of corruption in Centrelink leases in 2013. The government itself has also spent the past few years talking about the need for a corruption watchdog and I acknowledge members of all political parties who have advocated publicly or privately for such an agency.

Meanwhile, Australia's international reputation for being relatively corruption free is waning—dropping from a global ranking of the seventh least corrupt nation 20 years ago to the 13th, ranking behind countries like Canada, New Zealand and Singapore in the Transparency International Australia 2015 corruption perceptions index. Similarly, Hong Kong was known as one of the most corrupt places on Earth 50 years ago but within five years of the start of its Independent Commission Against Corruption all overt and syndicated corruption was eradicated and Hong Kong is now regarded as one of the most corruption free societies in the world. The Hong Kong ICAC was among the world's first to effectively enforce protection against private sector corruption and is an active partner in promoting international cooperation.

Given the very important work done by our own agencies—ICAC, for example—it is not easy to believe that corruption does not exist in governments and parliaments in this country. Add this to an era in which we are corporatizing all of our government institutions and there is overwhelming evidence at hand to show that now is the time for bipartisan support for a national integrity watchdog. Domestic experience and international best practice models have shown that political leaders must forge broad political coalitions that can endure organised opposition if they hope to prevent systematic corruption. As such I call on the government and the opposition to reflect the will of the wider Australian public— (Time expired)