Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table the explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table the explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

This bill will establish the Australian Federal Integrity Commission - a new independent body responsible for implementing a national pro-integrity framework, with an emphasis on prevention.

I want to acknowledge Dr Helen Haines, the Member for Indi, who introduced essentially the same bill into the House of Representatives in October 2020, and who has led the drafting and refinement of this bill as a consensus proposal since the beginning of this Parliament.

This is the right bill for the Senate to debate, and this is the right time for the Senate to have this debate.

This bill would restore the public's trust, confidence, and pride in the integrity of their Members of Parliament and their democracy.

The Australian Federal Integrity Commission, or 'AFIC', will have appropriate and proportionate powers of assessment, investigation, and referral. This will enable clear and practical responses to allegations of serious and systemic corruption issues at the federal level in the public interest.

AFIC will be empowered to receive and consider public referrals. It is absolutely vital that any Australian and all decent public servants have a reputable body they can trust with corruption concerns and that will protect and support them as whistleblowers.

As a safeguard, this bill also includes statutory definitions for frivolous, vexatious, or otherwise baseless claims. These provisions will allow the Commission to vet referrals and protect reputations.

AFIC would also be retrospective. I want to be clear: this bill does not apply new laws to past facts. If conduct was criminal at the time, it was criminal at the time. All integrity commissions at state level are retrospective. This bill is no different in that regard and allows AFIC to look into the past so we can learn from our mistakes and improve.

AFIC will also give more than lip service to advancing a pro-integrity agenda though well-resourced education, prevention, training, policy leadership and research initiatives.

AFIC will also work off a clear and sensible definition of corruption that is fit for purpose.

When it comes to investigations and inquiries, AFIC must focus on conduct that is serious or systemic in nature, such as conduct that constitutes a criminal offence, grounds for dismissal or a substantial breach of an applicable code of conduct.

AFIC will also be empowered to hold public hearings when in the public interest.

I know Dr Haines has spoken at length with many Members of Parliament in both Houses about their views on public hearings and has incorporated provisions in Part 6 of the bill to assuage their concerns.

For example, all persons called to give evidence before AFIC will have a rolling right to request a private hearing and can present their reasons for this in private with the Commissioner.

The Commissioner must base that decision on the comprehensive public interest test in Section85, which balances the overarching need for transparency with countervailing factors, such as how serious or systemic the corruption issue at hand is in Australia, the confidential nature of any evidence such as journalistic sources, and any unfair exposure of a person's private life or unfair prejudice to personal reputation, even if by simple association with the Commission by name.

This bill is the culmination of over a decade of prior consultation, over a decade of committee inquiries and over a decade of evaluations of the strengths and witnesses of the ICAC laws that exist in every jurisdiction in this country except this one.

This bill has the endorsement of some of the finest legal minds from the High Court, Federal Court and Supreme Courts across this nation. The Centre for Public Integrity has ranked this bill the best in the nation.

As put by the Hon. Margaret White, the former Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the first woman to claim such a title: "When it is established, for surely it will be as no right-thinking person could resist the principles which underpin it, it will elevate Australian public life immeasurably."

It's now been over 1000 days since the Prime Minister promised this nation a robust federal integrity commission. Australians are still waiting, and they should not hold their breath waiting any longer for this Government to deliver a robust model.

The Government has refused to introduce a bill to this place. It has sat on its dud Commonwealth Integrity Commission proposal through round after round of consultation and refused to amend it. The Centre for Public Integrity has classified the Government's proposal as the 'weakest watchdog in the country'.

All but two of the 300 submissions to the Government's last consultation roundly criticised the bill. It is unworkable, and unsalvageable.

With respect to colleagues on both sides, a bill for a federal integrity commission would be ill-fated if it came from any of the major parties. It will almost certainly descend into partisan games and mudslinging.

An important reform like this must come through the middle, from the crossbench.

Questions of integrity have plagued this Parliament.

Australians do not want to head into the next election without a robust federal integrity commission. This is the way we deliver it. If the Government wants to act on its election commitment, it should amend this bill and abandon its own.

I commend this bill to the Senate.

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.