Helen Dalton,whose seat centres on the regional centre of Griffith,says she’s unafraid of political backlash over her stance on poker machines.
The bill to establish the federal National Anti-Corruption Commission is on track to pass parliament this sitting fortnight,with the government and Coalition expected to team up to defeat a push by the crossbench and Greens to remove the limits on holding hearings in public.
A National Anti-Corruption Commission is on track to be legislated by the end of the year,but crossbenchers have voiced concerns over the agency’s limited ability to hold public hearings.
Transparency campaigners want the new anti-corruption commission to have more scope to reveal its proceedings and greater powers to hold public hearings.
A crossbench campaign will demand crucial changes to Labor’s plan for a national corruption commission in a bid to encourage more public hearings.
The crossbench MPs,including senators whose votes could be decisive,are worried Labor’s integrity commission will not be broad enough to go after corrupt union officials and business people who seek to influence the government.
Thirty-four years after Australia’s first state-based anti-corruption commission was legislated,we’re about to get a federal one.
The new anti-corruption watchdog is unlikely to be legislated before the end of the year.
The political debate will now shift to cost of living pressures as electricity prices spike and Labor seeks ambitious goals for clean energy.
Independent MP for Indi Helen Haines says the government’s federal integrity agency must have powers to probe conduct that is not prima facie corruption.
The Greens and a key crossbencher want the new anti-corruption body to have funding set independently of the government of the day to protect the agency.