Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Hinch is quite right: the government does have a robust, multifaceted framework to combat corruption in the Australian Public Service. Under this framework, multiple agencies have responsibilities for preventing, detecting and responding to corruption—for example, the Australian Federal Police are, of course, responsible for the Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre, which has expertise in investigating serious and complex corruption offences, including fraud, foreign bribery and certain APS offences. The Commonwealth Ombudsman considers and investigates complaints where people believe they have been treated unfairly by an Australian government department.

Australian Public Service census data consistently indicates a very high perceived standard of ethical behaviour across the Australian government. The government is always looking at how we can strengthen our current approach to combatting corruption. The government does not presume a single agency will be more effective in combatting corruption than the current approach.