It’s taken years of relentless pressure from a small number of determined parliamentarians to get to this point of seeing a sitting government table anti-corruption legislation in the federal parliament, as the Albanese Government did on Wednesday.
Much of that pressure has been led by women, including independents who had integrity at the top of their platform agendas in running for office.
And much of the result that occurred on Wednesday — a promising step forward on finally getting a federal anti-corruption body, comes thanks to collaboration.
Independent MP for Indi Dr Helen Haines stood with crossbenchers outside Parliament on Wednesday, highlighting the “momentous day” that had been a long time coming. She noted how for the first time, a government had introduced a bill for an intergrity watchdog to parliament, following other attempts from the crossbench and the Greens.
Haines acknowledged the work for former leader of The Greens Bob Brown, as well as Greens Senator Larissa Waters, and the woman Haines succeeded in the seat of Indi, Cathy McGowan.
The need for integrity reform in parliament was first recommended 17 years ago by Transparency International Australia, while it’s been five years since a Senate Select Committee agreed unanimously on the need to give anti-corruption measures serious consideration.
McGowan herself had introduced an integrity bill back in November 2018, with the Coalition sitting on the idea until releasing a flawed and weak draft bill two years later — and never introducing it.
McGowan fought tirelessly for an integrity commission, a legacy that’s been carried on by her successor Helen Haines. She was promised by multiple ministers including Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Christian Porter that they would deliver on a National Integrity Commission of Federal version of ICAC. But when I spoke to her in late 2020, she had all but given up hope that it would happen in the then political environment. Said at the time that we’d ultimately need a wider range of people to get elected to make it happen, particularly women.
That did happen, with the political environment changing significantly in the May election this year, notably with the election of a large cohort of female independents.
Fifteen crossbenchers gave their support to the legislation, declaring they were “satisfied” with the promises given so far. However, they remain cautious on the details — including the $262 million National Anti-Corruption body, including current plans for the watchdog’s hearing to not be made public, except under “exceptional circumstances.”
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. We plan to get it right,” Haines told reporters on Wednesday.
“This is really important – we’ve fought long and hard to have retrospective powers, to have a very powerful anti-corruption commission with all the powers of a royal commission.
“We’ve done a lot of work, we’ve worked hard to get third parties included, enormous advocacy – what we’re hearing today as the attorney-general reads this bill in is the combination of a lot of work from the crossbench.”