Independent MP Helen Haines, a key advocate of a new federal integrity commission, says the government should not rush a committee inquiry into the new bill to meet an end of year deadline.
On Monday, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, walked back an election promise to legislate the new federal anti-corruption commission by year’s end, saying the government’s pledge was only to introduce the bill to parliament.
Haines, the MP for the seat of Indi who moved a private member’s bill for a federal anti corruption commission in the last parliament, said the timetable for the government’s bill was already ambitious, “even when we were set to be in parliament this week”.
“As it stands we will miss about two weeks of time when the select committee that will examine the bill would have been holding hearings and taking submissions. That is important work,” Haines told Guardian Australia.
“Setting up a body such as this is complicated and there will be important contributions to be made that will improve and strengthen the legislation put forward by the government.
“For this commission to truly be the best it can be and have the trust of Australian people, we need time to debate these issues in the public sphere, through the committee process. This is about setting the commission up for success, not compromising and getting it wrong. It’s a once in a generation opportunity to get the best integrity model possible and the most important thing is that parliament works constructively to get it right.”
Haines said that she would be working hard to ensure the bill did not face further delays “without impacting on the final model that is implemented”.
After this week’s sitting of parliament was cancelled after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the government has come under pressure over the fate of its new national anti-corruption commission, legislation for which was due to be introduced this week.
Ahead of the 21 May election, Labor promised to legislate “a powerful, transparent and independent national anti-corruption commission by the end of 2022”, with the commitment made on a number of occasions since by the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus.
Albanese announced on Monday that parliament would make up the lost sitting days arising from the official period of mourning by sitting on Friday 23 September for condolence motions to mark the Queen’s death, and then 26-28 September for general parliamentary business.
However, even with the revised sitting calendar, there are now limited sitting days left, before parliament rises for the year, for the new integrity bill to pass. There are just three full sitting weeks for both houses before the end of the year. The budget will be held on 25 October.
The government would need either the support of the Coalition, or the Greens and one other independent, to pass the bill through the Senate.
When asked whether the government was confident of fulfilling its election promise despite the disruption to the sitting calendar, Albanese said the government’s position had not changed.
“The commitment we had was that it would be introduced this year, but I’m confident that that timetable hasn’t changed,” he said.
The prime minister’s remarks appeared at odds with earlier commitments which more explicitly stated the government would legislate the bill by the end of the year as “the first priority”.
This was stated both in Labor’s election platform and in media releases at the time.
Since the election, Dreyfus has been consulting with crossbench MPs about the proposed new model for the national anti-corruption commission (Nacc), which would have broad jurisdiction to investigate serious or systemic corruption across the commonwealth public sector.
Once the legislation is introduced to parliament, it will be referred to a parliamentary committee for further scrutiny which will then report back to the Senate.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Dreyfus said the government remained hopeful of fulfilling the election commitment.
“The attorney general will bring the legislation to caucus in the next sitting week of parliament and we plan to introduce the legislation in that week, and we hope to have the legislation through both houses of parliament by the end of the year.”
The Greens and the crossbench have been calling on the government to ensure the new organisation is overseen by a parliamentary committee that includes non-government members, and measures to guarantee the body’s financial independence.
While the government has also been under pressure to improve whistleblower protections to coincide with the passage of the Nacc bill, Dreyfus has instead indicated this will take place next year with an update of the Public Interest Disclosure Act, in line with recommendations made by the Moss review in 2016.
