Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Pocock, for your amendments. The commission will be a specialist body focused on preventing, detecting and investigating corruption involving public officials. The commissioner will be able to fully investigate serious or systemic corrupt conduct and transactions between public officials and third parties as well as attempts by third parties to corrupt public officials. This includes the conduct referred to in Senator Pocock's proposed amendment, where there is some involvement of a public official.

Extending the commission's jurisdiction beyond matters involving corruption of a public official to include external frauds against the Commonwealth that do not involve a public official would divert the commission from its core purpose. For that reason the government does not support items (2), (3) and (4) on Sheet 1769.

In relation to the yet-unmoved amendment items (5) and (6) on sheet 1769—and again I thank Senator Pocock for these amendments: the government has committed substantial funding of $262 million over four years for the establishment and ongoing operation of the commission. The parliamentary joint committee on the commission will have the function of reviewing the commission's budget and finances, of reporting to the parliament on whether the commission's resources are sufficient to effectively perform its functions and whether its budget should be increased. The committee would be able to review the commission's budget at any time. We think, therefore, that the commission's budget and the certainty around its budget is sufficiently preserved, and we do not consider that further amendments would meaningfully enhance the commission's role. For that reason we don't support these amendments either.