Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week the Accountability Round Table recognised Cathy McGowan AO, my predecessor in this place as the independent member for Indi, with the Alan Missen Award for integrity. The Speaker too was recognised, with the roundtable's John Button Award. Both awards acknowledge exceptional contributions to parliamentary integrity.

Cathy was elected in 2013 as the result of a grassroots democratic campaign led by Voices for Indi. It brought together people from our communities to identify issues important to them and to support a candidate who could give voice to and seek resolution of those issues in parliament. This was doing politics differently, and at its heart were the values of integrity, honesty and respect. In her two terms in parliament Cathy achieved much for the people of Indi, but she also did much to advance the cause of integrity in politics in Australia. In November last year Cathy presented a bill to establish a National Integrity Commission, which would investigate corruption and wrongdoing in the public sector and among politicians and their staff. The bill had wide support among my Indi constituents, with Cathy receiving hundreds of emails and letters endorsing her action. It also had wide public support and across the legal profession, but not in the government.

Yesterday I joined my colleagues the member for Sydney and the member for Wentworth at the Museum of Australian Democracy's launch of its Democracy 2025 report, the outcome of an academic study in which parliamentarians were surveyed about how they see our democracy and how it can be reformed. The report reveals that 60 per cent of politicians were satisfied with the performance of our democracy, but only 40 per cent of voters are satisfied. Worse, just 21 per cent of Australians trust politicians—an all-time low.

What it shows is that building greater trust in politicians and the parliament and its institutions is critical for a healthy democracy. There's no mystery about what people want from their elected representatives: honesty, empathy and delivery. They want parliamentarians who do what they say, who listen to them and who bring great and real change to their lives. While there are many democratic reforms that voters support but which politicians do not, there are areas of agreement. Reform is possible. We can start where we do agree, on our common ground. Voters believe that political candidates should provide them with details of their campaign pledges to ensure they respond to constituents' needs. Most politicians agree. Australians believe the amount of money that parties and candidates can spend on campaigning and how much they can accept from donors should be limited. Most politicians actually agree. In fact the Democracy 2025 report shows the reforms to improve our democracy favoured by the greatest number of parliamentarians centre on campaign donations and election pledges.

Change starts where we agree. There are two bills before the parliament that would begin to restore the public trust that is so sorely missing. First, the member for Mayo has presented the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Real Time Disclosure of Political Donations) Bill 2019. This bill would require political parties and politicians to disclose donations they receive within five days, not 365 as is currently the case. Second, the member for Melbourne has reintroduced the National Integrity Commission bill that Cathy McGowan first developed. The government insists it will introduce its own bill by the end of the year. But November is 14 days away and no draft legislation has yet been put to us. When the government does release this draft, all Australians will expect it to be as strong as the McGowan model, with public hearings, public findings and properly funded, dedicated anticorruption investigative resourcing. Australian voters and my constituents in Indi will not accept a limp lettuce serve, nor will I.

I began by congratulating Cathy McGowan for setting the standard for integrity in politics over the last two parliaments. She has set the benchmark that all of us elected to this place should meet, and she has left a legacy that I intend to carry on. The people of Indi elected me because for six years they had confidence in a representative who did what she said she would do, who listened to them and delivered to their expectations: honesty, empathy and action.

Cathy McGowan deserved the Alan Missen Integrity Award. I invite all my colleagues to tread the path that she has made.