MARK DREYFUS
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
BUDGET CONFIRMS MORRISON WILL NEVER ESTABLISH AN ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION
The 2022 Budget has confirmed the Morrison Government has no intention of ever establishing its long-promised national anti-corruption commission.
For the second straight year the Budget papers confirm not a single staff member has been allocated for the long-promised “Commonwealth Integrity Commission” for this year or the next.
https://budget.gov.au/2022-23/content/bp4/download/bp4_2022-23.pdf
On 13 December 2018, Mr Morrison and his former Attorney-General Christian Porter stood before the Australian people and promised ‘a robust, resourced, real system that will protect the integrity of Commonwealth and public administration’.
Rather than keeping his election commitment to the Australian people Mr Morrison’s Government has voted 31 times to block the establishment of a National Anti-Corruption Commission or prevent one from even being debated.
In the 1200 days since making that promise Mr Morrison has never even brought a bill before the Parliament to introduce a National Anti-Corruption Commission and the Budget confirms that if re-elected, he has no intention of ever changing that.
Meanwhile, scandal after scandal goes unchecked and all we see are endless excuses and a weak, pathetic, desultory ‘exposure draft’ which was so bad, the Centre for Public Integrity denounced it as 'a sham designed to cover up corruption' and 'the weakest watchdog in the country'.
This is a government that lives in fear of accountability and what a powerful, independent, and transparent anti-corruption commission would reveal.
It is now clear that Australians will only get a national anti-corruption commission if they elect an Albanese Labor government.
Mr Morrison won’t act. Labor will.
In government Labor will establish a powerful, transparent and independent National Anti-Corruption Commission.
WEDNESDAY, 30 MARCH 2022
