Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I appreciate the time given to me by the member for Indi and congratulate the member for Indi on this huge body of work, because we, as a crossbench, do not have the huge Public Service to use. We rely on other like-minded people to support us, and I, too, would like to acknowledge the work done by Transparency International Australia and also the Australia Institute. In this chamber, if this parliament does not take a stand against corruption then what message are we sending to the Australian people? That message is that we believe in this federal parliament there is nothing to see, that somehow we are immune from the same failings that have already been exposed at state level and in our banks and in our churches. We are also saying that we condone and accept the consequences of corruption—that we as a nation have no issue with nepotism, undue influence or the misuse of public funds.

So I call on this government—if this government fails to establish a national integrity commission, they are contributing to the erosion of public trust and confidence, and we cannot allow this to happen. We have now dropped to 13th. We are out of the top 10 of the corruptions perceptions index. As usual, we're behind New Zealand. Sadly, that is how it is on so many levels of governance now and it is a great shame. This country—this nation, this parliament—must do better, and so I urge the government to use its time in this parliament to adopt a bipartisan approach. Work with us. Work with the opposition. We all want this, because we all know that sunlight is, indeed, the best disinfectant. We have a number of weeks left to go. Let's use the will of the parliament to do this.

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