Dio Wang (WA, Palmer United Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the interim report of the Select Committee into the Establishment of a National Integrity Commission, together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I seek leave to incorporate the tabling statement in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

Today I table a report of the incomplete parliamentary inquiry into the need for a federal corruption watchdog.

The Select Committee into the establishment of National Integrity Commission has been forced into delivering this limited interim report, because a full and proper inquiry is being shut down by the government's early election to wipe independent voices from the parliament.

The government should support a multi-agency, cross-jurisdictional project into an effective national integrity system—research that is currently pending a decision on an application for Commonwealth funding.

Given the short time frame, the government's support for further research was the sole recommendation of the, which was adopted this morning ahead of tabling in Parliament tomorrow.

We had just begun taking evidence on how a national integrity commission might be structured, yet an early election cuts that short. And in the crucial area of protected submissions, there is not even enough time to properly communicate with submitters about the appropriate course of action for their concerns.

The report, which was limited to considering anti-corruption measures in public administration in Australia because of the time constraints, cites evidence that:

The federal government is seen as corrupt by almost one-in-three Australians (and more so than state or local governments), with 43 per cent of people believing corruption is on the rise.

Most federal agencies' anti-corruption efforts go unsupervised—including half the total federal public sector not in the jurisdiction of the Australian Public Service Commission internal compliance systems.

Corruption risks have increased in recent years due to increased government control of information, increased funding needs of political campaigns, privatisation of government services and projects, retired ministers and their staff becoming lobbyists, and large infrastructure funding decisions.

There are no independent mechanisms supporting federal parliamentary integrity.

Government complacency has driven Australia's plunge in a global corruption perceptions index.

Corruption prevention, risk assessment and monitoring activities are patchy and uncoordinated, with the Commonwealth's fragmented and ill-defined integrity systems the result of decades of uncoordinated developments in law, public sector management, and political accident; and yet

this government does not support the establishment of an overarching federal corruption watchdog because it claims existing measures are sufficient.

The commission would not only play a vital educative role in preventing corruption in the first instance, but perhaps almost as importantly, it would restore public confidence in federal politics.

Therefore, I call on the government to—before it enters caretaker mode—ensure funding is granted for the research being led by Griffith University with Transparency International Australia, the Qld Integrity Commissioner, the NSW Ombudsman and other public sector and academic stakeholders, to identify an appropriate federal anti-corruption system which, the inquiry heard, has overwhelming public support.

I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.