Senate debates

Thursday, 9 February 2017

Bills

National Integrity Commission Bill 2013; Second Reading

9:53 am

Photo of Ian MacdonaldIan Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw 'stupid'. If he is so base that he cannot find the phone number of ACLEI, I will text it to him. Australia already has zero tolerance to corruption in all of its forms and so does particularly this government. We do not support the Craig Thomsons of this world. We are determined to have zero tolerance to corruption.

We have strong laws and a robust, multiagency approach to combating corruption. A range of agencies play a role in preventing, detecting and responding to corruption. We have ACLEI, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, which I have already mentioned. The AFP-hosted fraud and anticorruption centre brings together a range of Commonwealth agencies to respond to serious fraud and corruption matters, including government services, programs and employees. The Commonwealth provided an additional $15 million to that centre in April last year under the coalition government. This framework provides significant coverage of fraud and corruption across Australian government agencies, with particular focus on areas of high corruption risk.

I do not cast aspersions or innuendos on anyone, but in the exchange I had with Senator Siewert earlier I raised the issue of the missing bundle of votes in Western Australia from the last Senate election. What happened to them? I know you do not know, Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle, neither, unfortunately, do the Australian Federal Police, although in their evidence to the electoral matters committee—

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