Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian people's faith in politicians and our parliament is at one of its lowest points. The Australian National University do a study called the Australian Election Study after every election cycle. In 2019, they found that satisfaction with democracy in Australia was at its lowest point since the 1970s constitutional crisis. The survey found that just 59 per cent of Australians were satisfied with how our democracy is working, and that figure had fallen 27 per cent since 1987. Australians have lost faith with politics and political leaders in this country—and is it any wonder? Under the previous government, there was a series of scandals and rorts that involved the use of taxpayers' dollars: sports rorts, car park rorts, regional development funds. We had a regional development fund that provided funding for the North Sydney pool upgrade. Now, in anyone's book, North Sydney ain't too regional at all, yet the previous government managed to find a way to give funding to the North Sydney Council to upgrade their pool.

Australians have had enough, and that's why, at the last election, they voted for change. They supported Labor's policy to establish a strong and independent National Anti-Corruption Commission. The National Anti-Corruption Commission Bill 2022 delivers on that commitment. It will establish a strong Anti-Corruption Commission with the powers to investigate and prosecute serious and systemic corruption. It will be independent from government. It will have the necessary powers to investigate alleged corruption by politicians and public officials, and those that engage with them. It will have the power to compel people to give evidence and to produce documents and materials relevant to its investigations. Importantly, it will have the power to conduct hearings in public so that the public can know what's going on, when and if it is in the public interest to do so.

Proposed amendments to the bill deliver on the recommendations made by the Joint Select Committee on National Anti-Corruption Commission Legislation. It represents the government listening to the people of Australia and the submissions that they made, and the recommendations of that joint committee. These amendments will broaden the safeguards for the protection of journalists in relation to search warrants and extend protections for their sources. They will improve safeguards for the wellbeing of persons who may require assistance to comply with a summons or notice to produce and expressly permit people to disclose information to a medical professional. They will require the commissioner to advise a person whose conduct has been investigated of the outcome of the investigation. They will amend the definition of corrupt conduct to clarify that the commissioner may deal with a corruption issue on their own initiative; require surveillance and interception warrants to be issued by eligible judges of a federal superior court; enhance the power of the National Anti-Corruption Commission inspector regarding witness summonses and arrest warrants; and narrow the grounds for bringing contempt proceedings.

This represents the Albanese government delivering an election commitment but acting on the constructive engagement from stakeholders and parliamentarians. It really represents the government listening to the Australian people, who said at the last election that they wanted a powerful anticorruption commission able to investigate allegations of corruption at a federal level. We've had them at the state level. The previous government avoided it, delayed it. This represents the Albanese government finally delivering a national anticorruption commission for Australia.

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