Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is now 965 days since Australians were promised a national anticorruption commission by the Prime Minister and his former Attorney-General—and it is still nowhere in sight. That's because this Prime Minister is terrified of what an independent inquiry conducted by a powerful and transparent anticorruption commission would reveal about what he and his government have been up to. They are terrified of an independent inquiry into their unlawful diversion of over $100 million into the sports rorts fiasco. They are terrified of an independent inquiry into their car park rorts. They're terrified of an independent inquiry into the payment of $30 million to a Liberal Party donor for airport land worth one-tenth of that. This is a government that lurches from scandal to scandal and survives on secrecy and cover-up. This is a government that lives in fear of accountability. This is a government that lives in terror of what a powerful, independent and transparent anticorruption commission would reveal to the Australian people. Unlike the Morrison government, unlike this Prime Minister, we in Labor know that corruption in government is a serious issue that must be addressed. That's why, unlike the Morrison government, Labor will make it a priority to establish a powerful, transparent and independent national anticorruption commission.