Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens will be supporting this suspension motion because we have waited far too long to see any semblance of integrity out of this government. It was an election promise at the last election that the government would introduce a corruption watchdog. Where's the bill? Nowhere to be seen. Consultation after consultation keeps getting ignored, and they still have a weak, pathetic body that has been criticised by experts as acting like a protection racket for their own MPs rather than a watchdog to clean up politics and to genuinely dissuade corruption. It's no surprise—and I looked at the figures—because half of the cabinet have been embroiled in an integrity scandal over recent years. It is no wonder the government doesn't want to bring on a bill for a corruption watchdog. They would lose half their cabinet.

We passed a bill for a strong independent corruption watchdog with teeth that could hold public hearings and that would be able to have genuine coverage of the actions of members of parliament and public servants. We passed that bill in the Senate more than two years ago. The Prime Minister has been running scared in the House and he has refused to bring that bill on for debate because he knows it would work. It would be effective and it might clean up the mess that this government, the cabinet and its backbench keep creating. It's no wonder that the Prime Minister is not delivering.

It's very interesting to see the position of One Nation on this legislation. They abstained from the vote on my bill two years ago, and that's why it passed. Last week we saw them change their position and say, no, actually now they think a corruption watchdog is just a witch-hunt. That's yet another deal that the government has done with One Nation to benefit their own electoral outcomes and to screw the Australian people once again. I expect that today that we'll see One Nation oppose this suspension motion and oppose the bill. The government has got that sewn up—so much for this phoney war that they're having. They are still in cahoots. They vote with the government almost every single time and they are selling out the Australian public. This is why Queensland needs to get rid of Pauline Hanson from the balance of power and replace her with someone that will stand up for the interests of the people and the planet. Our Greens candidate, Penny Allman-Payne, would be absolutely marvellous.

Back to the corruption watchdog, our version got top marks in an independent analysis of the versions, and guess who got the worst marks for the weakest proposed model? The government's model. An independent analysis by the Centre for Public Integrity said that the government's model is so weak that it's essentially a protection racket and it's worse than nothing. Our version got top marks as a strong corruption watchdog that would do the trick, so it's no wonder that the government is running scared and won't bring it on.

We welcome the crossbenchers who are also progressing this issue. It's been 11 years since the Greens started calling for a federal corruption watchdog. We're the only jurisdiction that doesn't have one, and we've been at this for 11 years. It took the Prime Minister until three years ago to finally say this wasn't a 'niche issue', as he had initially described it, and agree that one's needed. But he still hasn't actually delivered on that. It took the Labor Party quite a long time to change their view, and we welcome the fact that they have now done so. We welcome the fact that Helen Haines in the House and Senator Patrick and Senator Lambie have been strong on integrity issues and are now proposing their own bill. There are a whole range of bills for a corruption watchdog on the table. The one that's not on the table is the government's version. We've been waiting for 1,077 days. It's pretty clear we're going to be continuing to wait, because this Prime Minister couldn't lie straight in bed.

This is yet another broken promise. This is yet another falsehood from the Prime Minister. It is clear that he never intended to table a bill for a corruption watchdog. Why on earth are they prioritising bills to allow religious discrimination to be used as a sword, not a shield? They've found the time to do that. They've found the time to prioritise bills to suppress voters; we'll be seeing that in the Senate some time this week. They've found the time to make sure that charities can't speak out once election time is on. They are silencing dissent and they are suppressing voters. They've found the time to do that. They can't find the time to bring on my bill for a strong corruption watchdog, any of the crossbenchers' bills for a strong corruption watchdog or even their own weak version. They are not committed to doing this. They have no integrity. Let's turf them out at the next election and restore some integrity to this parliament.