Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Bob Carr. Is the minister aware that Australia became a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Corruption on 9 December 2003? Is the minister aware that the convention imposes an obligation upon national governments to use their best endeavours to eliminate corrupt practices within their jurisdictions and that that obligation extends to the elimination of corrupt practices by state and territory governments? Is the minister confident that the Commonwealth is and has at all times been compliant with its obligations under the Convention against Corruption?

Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, yes.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister advise what measures his government is putting in place to ensure full compliance with Australia's international anticorruption obligations by state and territory governments? Can the minister also advise what steps he is personally taking to advocate Australia's support for the convention in the international arena?

Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The best guarantors for good governance and corruption resistance are those that are embedded in the statutes of the Commonwealth. They are freedom of information, in the context of a lively, free parliamentary system—

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is that why the government keeps blocking FOI applications?

Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think that is a very unreasonable question. Australia, by any test, has a robust freedom of information regime, admired by other countries. Another bulwark is the role of the Ombudsman, a very important pillar of corruption resistance. Another pillar is the role of parliamentary audit and the estimates committees for which this Senate is renowned. All these are good bulwarks against corruption and to be much promoted. States have anticorruption commissions. (Time expired)

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Does the minister feel compromised in advocating Australia's support for the convention in the international arena given that, at the time Australia became a signatory to the convention, he, as Premier of New South Wales, presided over a government riven by corruption, as revealed by the Eddie Obeid scandal?

Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, no.