Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

We dealt with this just before with Senator Waters's amendments. Fundamentally, we believe there is accountability and transparency. The fact that a report has gone to the privileges committee in itself means that there has been a finding of a serious breach of the code of conduct—the fact that there has been a referral. There's a timeframe for the privileges committee to consider that—I think it's 60 days—and then make a report. That is the transparency that comes with that.

But there's very clear delineation between the independent investigator, the fact-finder and the assessor of the complaint, and then handing on that responsibility for the imposition of sanctions. The sanctions are set out in the bill as well, clearly, and the privileges committee must report publicly on their deliberations. So there is that transparency and accountability. Those deliberations would be made public, and that is the way that you enforce the accountability mechanism. But we strongly believe in a very clear delineation between the investigation, the finding of the breach and then the sanctions imposed.

Obviously, this has been consulted on heavily. Legal advice has been taken to make sure that it's robust and it can stand up to people opposing being considered through this process, and part of that was to make sure that that very clear delineation between responsibilities is made.