Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Lambie for bringing this issue to the attention of the Senate, and I rise to speak on behalf of the government. This is a really important issue. Senator Lambie is right to say that this is something that the public is concerned about. I know, as someone who's been in this chamber since 2016, that it is an issue that I was well aware of when I was elected and that I talked about in my first speech as well, and it is something that the government is committed to.

You need to consider this motion in the context of what we inherited when we came to government and the track record of our predecessors, and what we have done to turn that around. Not only was that an important focus during the lead-up to the election but there is what we have achieved in government as well. I think that Senator Lambie didn't go near giving the government some credit—and I know that's not her job to give the government credit, but I think there could have been some acknowledgement of the decisions that the government have made which have boosted transparency.

When you think about what we inherited from those opposite, particularly from the term of the Morrison government—a lot of that was gone through on TV on Monday night, on the ABC—it was a complete mess. We all remember the multiple ministries that the Prime Minister swore himself into. One of the first things that Prime Minister Albanese did when he came to power was order an inquiry into that to try and uncover how that could possibly happen in a democratic government here in Australia but also what we can do to prevent it from happening again. We took action on that and passed legislation to ensure that something like that—where you have a prime minister appointing himself to multiple ministries—can't happen again.

I also want to talk about the integrity commission that we have brought in, the NACC. The previous government for years promised to bring in an integrity commission, yet they progressed absolutely nothing in that regard. It is something that this government delivered on and it's something that I think will be an important legacy of this government—that we have brought this in. I'm sure that that will help ensure public accountability as well as help to restore public confidence in the actions of government.

The other important changes that we've been making are around the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The previous government stacked multiple former Liberal and National Party hacks and members of the party onto the AAT. It was something that this government said that we wanted to reform, and we have taken action on that. We have introduced a merit-based selection process to ensure that the people who are appointed to the AAT are capable of doing it, as we go about the more significant reform of ensuring the AAT is fit for purpose and serves the Australian people as was intended.

So, when you talk about the integrity of this government and the role that we have played, since coming to power, in ensuring that we are doing our bit to help restore integrity in government, we have a proud record in the almost two years that we have been in government. Whether it is bringing in the NACC, which I think will be an important reform; whether it is ensuring that a prime minister can't appoint himself to multiple ministries again; or, indeed, whether it is bringing in important reforms to the AAT that ensure that there is a merit-based selection process, this is a government that is delivering on its promises to the Australian people and doing its part.

We know that there is much more to do because this challenge of restoring the public's confidence in government is an ongoing one, and we continue to do that day in, day out, whether it's responding to questions on notice or responding to orders for the production of documents—and, on both counts, in government we have already responded to many more than our predecessors did, and that is only two years in. What we are doing is ensuring we walk the walk on this in terms of our reforms, because we want the Australian public to have confidence in this government. We understand the importance of restoring integrity to government. We want the public to have confidence in our decision-making as we act in the national interest and continue to restore integrity to government.