Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question, and I note both her longstanding involvement in the establishment of the commission and also the important work she does as part of parliamentary oversight. The honourable member continues to do that in a principled and consistent manner, and my response will reflect that.

The Inspector of the National Anti-Corruption Commission has announced that she will investigate complaints about the NACC commissioner's involvement in Defence related referrals and the commissioner's ongoing role with the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force. As the House will know, the inspector is independent of the Australian government and the commission. It's also important to note that the inspector is not subject to anyone's direction when performing her functions.

The member also raises issues regarding the NACC's work and some of its findings. This government was elected on a platform of legislating an independent anticorruption commission with strong oversight. That oversight is working as intended. We honoured, as I said, that commitment, and it will interest the House to know the following. Since it commenced operations, the commission has received over 6,000 referrals. It is currently conducting 30 preliminary inquiries and 35 corruption investigations. Since 1 July 2023, there have been 11 convictions resulting from commission investigations, and there are a further four matters currently before the courts. The commission publishes regular updates about its work on its website, and I encourage all members to avail themselves of that information at nacc.gov.au.

As I said, I appreciate the honourable member's ongoing involvement in this area, but it does reflect also a number of important pieces of work that this government has delivered on integrity. But I do say, in all sincerity, to the member there is much more to do. There is much more to do in a lot of these areas. Legislating a powerful, independent and transparent NACC was an important role. Introducing a new Commonwealth Fraud and Corruption Control Framework, imposing stronger anticorruption obligations on all Commonwealth agencies, is another of them. Others include making sure that we had the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme and implemented its findings, and ensuring that in other portfolios we strengthened our anti-money-laundering regime through the passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act. What this points to is the important work not only of the commission but also of oversight. But I take on board the honourable member's comments. They have come from a sincere place. There is much more work to do, and we support the NACC in undertaking that work.

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