The Albanese government is one step closer to fulfilling its election promise to establish a National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), after the Senate passed Labor's bill with amendments by the Greens.
Legislation to create a body that will investigate corruption on a Commonwealth level, including by ministers and parliamentarians, passed the upper house on Tuesday evening.
The Coalition supported Greens' amendments to expand the power of the NACC inspector, and the bill will now return to the House of Representatives.
However, the Greens and other crossbenchers were unsuccessful in their attempt to amend the legislation to remove the "exceptional circumstances" clause for public hearings, and require the government of the day to gain the support of at least one non-government member on the NACC oversight committee to approve the appointment of a commissioner or inspector.
Greens senator David Shoebridge said the successful amendment would give the inspector significant additional powers to guard against potential overreach and maladministration by the NACC.
"The Greens worked collaboratively across the parliament to secure key improvements to the bill which will guard against any potential overreach by the NACC and ensure procedural fairness for witnesses," he said.
"This bill gives the NACC extremely broad powers to compel witnesses to answer questions and to force the production of documents, and with this comes the need for a fully empowered Inspector to be a check on any potential misuse of these powers.
Senator Shoebridge described a decision by the government and opposition to oppose several other amendments as a "missed opportunity to further future proof the NACC".
The Greens wanted to require a "simple majority" of members on the oversight committee to agree to an appointment of a commissioner or inspector to ensure future governments would not have total control over appointments, but the amendment was voted down.
Exceptional circumstances threshold 'unnecessary'
A last-ditch attempt by the Greens and other crossbenchers to amend the bill to remove the "exceptional circumstances" threshold required for the commission to hold public hearings failed.
Lawyers and transparency groups have criticised the clause, arguing it is vague and could severely restrict the number of hearings held in public.
Senator Shoebridge accused the two major parties of working together to limit public hearings.
"We've certainly seen some kumbaya between the government and the opposition on the whole issue of the NACC once public hearings were shut down," he said.
"We heard from the from the New South Wales ICAC and from the Victorian IBAC that this is a test that should not be put into the NACC bill."
Independent senator David Pocock spoke in support of the Greens amendment and said the clause "does not seem necessary".
"Can I just put on the record from the consultations that I've done across the ACT how disappointed people are with the Labor government to have promised an independent commission against corruption, where public hearings will be held when in the public interest, to now have done a deal with the opposition to insert exceptional circumstances," Senator Pocock told the Senate.
Senior government minister Murray Watt argued the threshold is appropriate and strikes the right balance.
"It also reflects the sensitivities involved in holding public hearings, for example, the risk of prejudicing a future criminal investigation or trial, and also the issues of reputational harm that may arise," he told the Senate.
"Where the commission considers there are exceptional circumstances that justify having a public hearing, then they will be able to do that."
Labor promised during the election campaign that if it won, it would pass the legislation before the end of the year.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has previously said he would like to see the NACC up and running by the middle of 2023.
