Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise in support of the government's National Anti-Corruption Commission Bill 2022, because on 21 May this year the Albanese Labor government was elected with a mandate to establish a powerful, independent and transparent body to rectify an apparent gap in our national integrity frameworks. We're delivering on this promise, and we're doing it right now, this year. Our Labor government is serious about rebuilding faith and trust in our democratic processes and ensuring that the federal government is always focused on the interests of the Australian people, not on its own political self-interest.

There is no greater priority now, because a government is nothing without integrity. As members of parliament we're elected via a democratic process—a robust, independent democratic process. We must be accountable to the Australian people, who put their faith in us to govern this country. If there is no oversight then there is no transparency.

But, shamefully, for the last decade we've seen the consequences of a Liberal government who operated behind closed doors. We saw plenty of very questionable behaviour. We had a Prime Minister in the member for Cook who appointed himself into several ministries, which was a shock to all Australians but perhaps there were none more shocked than his own coalition colleagues in the Liberal and National party rooms. If ever there was a definition of questionable behaviours, the former government embodied it. While this might not meet the definition of 'corruption', it no doubt offends our democratic system of government. It no doubt offended the Australian people, who made their voice known at the ballot box on the 21 May.

Two years ago I spoke in this chamber about integrity and, more specifically, the lack of it under the former government. At that time we'd seen the former government use a $100 million public grants program as a Liberal Party re-election fund in the sports rorts scandal, which impacted Newcastle's own Newcastle Olympic Football Club. They had a terrific application, by all accounts, had it been assessed by an independent body—well, it was in fact found to have scored very highly. But they were denied funding in that round, and we all know why now. We've all seen the colour coded spreadsheets. We've all been through the nasty, grubby sports rorts scandal that took place under the watch of the former government.

We've seen the immeasurable harm that the disgraceful and unlawful robodebt scheme caused for thousands of vulnerable Australians, and all of us on this side of the House have had to try to support so many of our constituents who were caught up in that unlawful scandal.

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