Page 5133 - Week 13 - Thursday, 29 November 2018
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will be an important addition to the ACT’s integrity framework and will enhance trust in government. It demonstrates our government’s commitment to increased transparency, accountability and integrity in government, delivering on our election commitment. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (4.45): The ACT Greens welcome the debate on this significant piece of legislation, one that will give the Canberra community greater confidence in our political system and public sector by establishing an independent integrity commission for the ACT.
Across the board, we have seen that trust in all levels of government is falling, driven by growing concern about corruption and fear that some public officials may be using their positions to benefit themselves and their families. There is also a concern that our current integrity systems are not set up to detect or respond to these kinds of issues. This is true not just in the ACT but across Australia and internationally, and is reflected in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index, where Australia’s score has been declining in recent years. While this perception is very real, it is not a reflection on one political party, one government or one scandal; it is a discontent that has developed over time, and something that we need to respond to.
Distrust in our political system and our public institutions is not good for our democracy and it is not good for Canberra. Canberrans deserve a political system that operates with integrity, accountability and openness, and I believe that the bill before us puts those principles into effect. The Greens fundamentally believe that government should be about putting our community first, and this commission will provide a level of scrutiny to make sure that this is happening.
The Greens have always campaigned for transparency and integrity in government. The community deserves to trust in its political representatives and trust in our democracy. Last term we drafted and passed nation-leading freedom of information laws for the ACT. We have always campaigned for clean elections and for banning donations from corporations to political parties. We believe that the community’s trust in government is paramount if government is to succeed.
That is why the Greens were the first party to commit to establishing an independent integrity commission for the ACT at the last election, and I am pleased that we now have tripartisan support for this idea. Perhaps in the past, you could have argued that Canberra was too small for this kind of body, but our city is growing and the community have made their feelings clear. This is an important reform to ensure that there is public confidence in government. Now is the right time to create this body, and in setting it up we must ensure that it has the right powers to be able to do its job effectively.
The ACT is unusual in not having an independent investigative integrity body. In fact, we are the last state or territory to establish such a body, leaving the commonwealth as the only jurisdiction in the nation without this important oversight. It is clear that there is a need for a similar sort of body at the federal level, with the current oversight arrangements through ACLEI and other bodies simply not having the powers or resources necessary to do the job.
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