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senate vote 2019-04-03#5
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2019-04-11 15:12:08
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Title
Motions — Parliamentary Transparency Charter- Motions - Parliamentary Transparency Charter - Introduce a Charter
Description
<p class="speaker">Tim Storer</p><p>I move:</p><p class="italic">Parliamentary Transparency Charter</p>- The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2019-04-03.47.1) introduced by SA Senator [Tim Storer](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/sa/tim_storer) (Independent), which means it failed. Senator Storer explained that:
- > *Public confidence in our federal politics is at an all-time low. With scandal after scandal involving corruption, misuse of public funds, political donations, unregulated lobbyists and attacks on whistleblowers, it's no wonder people are fed up. My parliamentary transparency charter aims to improve the integrity of, and public confidence in, our national government. It represents common sense, achievable and deeply needed reform.*
- ### Motion text
- > *Parliamentary Transparency Charter*
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- > *Preamble*
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- > *Transparency is essential for a well-functioning democracy. The (House of Representatives and the) Senate commit to pursuing the following transparency reforms to improve the integrity of, and public confidence in, our national government.*
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- > *Reforms*
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- > *National Integrity Commission*
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- > *Establish an independent National Integrity Commission to oversee the activities of public officials and empowered to conduct public hearings and make public findings of fact.*
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- > *Real-time disclosure of political donations above $1,000*
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- > *Amend political donation laws to require disclosure of donations above $1,000 by recipients in as close to 'real-time' as practical.*
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- > *Enhanced freedom of information arrangements*
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- > *Boost funding to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and FOI units within departments and agencies and improve FOI review processing times.*
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- > *Enhanced whistleblower protections*
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- > *Further consolidate the whistleblower protection regime and enhance existing whistleblower protections.*
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- > *Overhaul lobbyist rules*
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- > *Legislate lobbying code of conduct and require lobbyists to disclose who they meet with and the subject matter of their meeting on a monthly basis. Expand lobbyist register to include in-house lobbyists.*
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- > *Conduct standards for parliamentarians*
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- > *Develop a Statement of Parliamentarian Standards, modelled on the Statement of Ministerial Standards, applicable to all parliamentarians.*
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- > *Parliamentary Integrity Commissioner*
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- > *Establish an independent Parliamentary Integrity Commissioner, empowered to enforce standards of parliamentary conduct, oversee interest disclosure requirements and deal with allegations of misuse of public funds, blatant falsehoods in political advertising, and breaches of lobbyist rules.*
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- > *(2) That this resolution be communicated to the House of Representatives for concurrence.*
<p class="italic">Preamble</p><p class="italic">Transparency is essential for a well-functioning democracy. The (House of Representatives and the) Senate commit to pursuing the following transparency reforms to improve the integrity of, and public confidence in, our national government.</p><p class="italic">Reforms</p><p class="italic"> <i>National Integrity Commission</i></p><p class="italic">Establish an independent National Integrity Commission to oversee the activities of public officials and empowered to conduct public hearings and make public findings of fact.</p><p class="italic"> <i>Real-time disclosure of political donations above $1,000</i></p><p class="italic">Amend political donation laws to require disclosure of donations above $1,000 by recipients in as close to 'real-time' as practical.</p><p class="italic"> <i>Enhanced freedom of information arrangements</i></p><p class="italic">Boost funding to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and FOI units within departments and agencies and improve FOI review processing times.</p><p class="italic"> <i>Enhanced </i> <i>whistleblower protections</i></p><p class="italic">Further consolidate the whistleblower protection regime and enhance existing whistleblower protections.</p><p class="italic"> <i>Overhaul lobbyist rules</i></p><p class="italic">Legislate lobbying code of conduct and require lobbyists to disclose who they meet with and the subject matter of their meeting on a monthly basis. Expand lobbyist register to include in-house lobbyists.</p><p class="italic"> <i>Conduct standards for parliamentarians</i></p><p class="italic">Develop a Statement of Parliamentarian Standards, modelled on the Statement of Ministerial Standards, applicable to all parliamentarians.</p><p class="italic"> <i>Parliamentary Integrity Commissioner</i></p><p class="italic">Establish an independent Parliamentary Integrity Commissioner, empowered to enforce standards of parliamentary conduct, oversee interest disclosure requirements and deal with allegations of misuse of public funds, blatant falsehoods in political advertising, and breaches of lobbyist rules.</p><p class="italic">(2) That this resolution be communicated to the House of Representatives for concurrence.</p><p>I seek leave to make a short statement and to table a document.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Ryan</p><p>You'll need to get the document to the whips for them to see it in order to get leave. Leave is granted for one minute for the statement.</p> <p class="speaker">Tim Storer</p><p>Public confidence in our federal politics is at an all-time low. With scandal after scandal involving corruption, misuse of public funds, political donations, unregulated lobbyists and attacks on whistleblowers, it's no wonder people are fed up. My parliamentary transparency charter aims to improve the integrity of, and public confidence in, our national government. It represents common sense, achievable and deeply needed reform.</p><p>Sixteen crossbenchers from both the House and the Senate, representing different ideological backgrounds, have signed the charter and committed to pursuing its reform. The public should know who they are: Cathy McGowan; Andrew Wilkie; Adam Bandt; Senators Griff, Patrick and Burston; and all nine senators from the Australian Greens. If the crossbenchers can put aside our differences and recognise that this reform is needed in our politics, why can't the major parties? To be clear, this motion would pass if just one of the major parties voted for it; we would have the numbers. In the lead-up to the election, the public will know who in this chamber is committed to meaningful reform that will restore belief in our federal politics and who is not. I implore my Senate colleagues to realise— <i>(Time expired)</i></p> <p class="speaker">Deborah O'Neill</p><p>I seek leave to make a short statement.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Ryan</p><p>Leave is granted for one minute.</p> <p class="speaker">Deborah O'Neill</p><p>The opposition will not be supporting this motion. The opposition understands the intent of the motion by Senator Storer and his passion for parliamentary integrity. That is why Labor is committed to establishing a national integrity commission, lowering the disclosure threshold for political donations to a fixed $1,000 and progressing real-time disclosure of donations. It is why Labor forced the government to ban foreign donations from our system and protect against foreign influence. However, this motion contains a number of provisions that require detailed policy consideration and further consultation prior to introduction. As such, we will not be supporting this motion.</p> <p class="speaker">Duncan Spender</p><p>I seek leave to make a short statement.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Ryan</p><p>Leave is granted for one minute.</p> <p class="speaker">Duncan Spender</p><p>This is not my first speech. There are some problems with Senator Storer's motion on transparency. Firstly, it seeks to set up an integrity commission with public hearings. Public hearings are not necessarily a good idea; they can involve the chamber becoming a star chamber. There are technical suggestions about reducing thresholds for public donations. The main point to make about public donations is that parties' policies are on the public record, and the voters determine which parties they want in this place. There's a suggestion for more funding for freedom of information. We don't necessarily know that we need more funding; there could be a need for a shift of funding. With regard to enhanced whistleblower protections, what particular enhanced whistleblower protections? Some whistleblower protections go too far. There's a suggestion we need to control lobbyists more. Lobbyists need to be able communicate with the public; otherwise we all end in one big echo chamber. Finally, to the idea that we need a code of conduct for politicians, voters are our bosses—no-one else.</p> <p class="speaker">Larissa Waters</p><p>I seek leave to make a short statement.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Ryan</p><p>Leave is granted for one minute.</p> <p class="speaker">Larissa Waters</p><p>I rise to just note and welcome this motion. It consolidates probably 10 years of Greens work on integrity measures. We're in full support of all of the points in this charter. In fact, the ICAC legislation was first proposed by Senator Bob Brown in 2009. We welcome the fact that other parties have now, after many years of denigrating the suggestion, adopted it as their own and we certainly hope that many of these other parties likewise do a 180-degree and decide that it's their policy also; however, we won't hold our breath on that. I note that, on donations, not only do we support the lowering of the disclosure threshold but we want to see donations capped, by everybody. Big money should not be running our politics anymore; this is not America. It is time for people in this place to represent their constituents, not their donors.</p> <p class="speaker">Scott Ryan</p><p>The question is that motion No. 1446 be agreed to.</p>
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