Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Tangney for his question. This week is set to be a historic week for this parliament. Australians are expecting this parliament to deliver the National Anti-Corruption Commission that they endorsed at the election. The passage of the two National Anti-Corruption Commission bills that are currently before the Senate will show that this parliament has listened and acted. The government's model for a national anticorruption commission contained in these bills is a strong watchdog with teeth. This body will have the powers of a standing royal commission. It will be able to commence investigations in its own right and accept anonymous tip-offs. It will have the ability to hold public hearings in exceptional circumstances and where it is in the public interest to do so. Importantly, the National Anti-Corruption Commission will have the necessary powers to root out corruption when it occurs. Just by doing its job it will have a strong deterrent effect on those who may engage in corrupt activity.

This is in stark contrast to the model that was promised but never delivered by the Liberal and National parties. Their proposed body did not allow for public hearings at all. It could not receive anonymous tip-offs or initiate its own inquiries, and it could only investigate matters that reached a criminal threshold. In short, it was a model that was designed not to tackle corruption at all. The Liberal and National parties' model was described by integrity experts as, 'The weakest watchdog in the country that would hide corruption and not expose it.' But the Australian people didn't buy it. They knew that those opposite would never—

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