Australians do not trust the majority of our politicians. There is a good reason for this; they are not accountable for their actions. They put donors before the average person, and problems always seem to be everyone else's fault, never their own. When they are finally punished, it is a slap on the wrist, sit on the backbench for a couple of months and then be welcomed back with open arms to the cabinet. If an alleged corrupt politician runs for re-election, citizens aren't asked to decide on the candidate's trustworthiness as the major parties like to tell us. They are asked to decide between a party they do not agree with or vote for an alleged corrupt politician in the party they want.
The government promised to implement some form of Federal ICAC; however, they have failed at this. We have seen alleged corruption multiple times during the last political term. I will work with fellow Independents and other parties to implement this body. I will also fight for this body to be able to look backwards a minimum of three years to cover the apparent abuse of trust and power we have seen during this past political term.
We have heard countless stories surrounding the toxic culture within Parliament House. There are serious and likely credible accusations of bullying and sexual abuse within Parliament, partially stemming from an old idea of the political bubble surrounding Canberra. This is not appropriate and illegal in any other work environment in Australia, so why is it okay for our leaders? The Jenkins Review has found that a third of people working in Federal Parliament have experienced sexual harassment, which outlines a deep-rooted cultural problem within the workplace and a lack of support for people working in Parliament House. The two main approaches to fixing this are replacing many politicians who have inherited and maintained this culture for multiple political terms and introducing an independent office that acts as a non-partisan HR department for all workers inside Parliament House.
There are currently questions about the protections afforded to whistleblowers against the Commonwealth. The Public Interest Disclosure Act makes it difficult to notify the public of internal issues and requires changing the definition and handling of intelligence matters. Currently, there is no protection for disclosing intelligence matters, but the definition includes law enforcement, effectively making it impossible to make a public disclosure surrounding breaches by policing agencies. Greater protection needs to be granted for democratic accountability against the government. This is highlighted by the aggressive prosecution the government has undertaken against people like Witness K and his lawyer for disclosing the immoral acts of Australian diplomats in Timor-Leste. Or the actions against Richard Boyle, who publicly disclosed the underhanded and aggressive pursuit of debts by the ATO.
The government needs to be more proactive in making information available to the public. We should have a system where all information available under FOI requests is indexed and available to anyone who wishes to see it. Even Rex Patrick, an Independent South Australian Senator, had to fight in court for minutes from National Cabinet to be made available to the public. Once the court decided this information should be public, he requested that all meeting minutes be made available. The response from the government was not to provide transparency; it was to rush laws to redefine National Cabinet to hide this information. This is not how a democracy should work. The public has the right to understand how decisions are made and not need to fight for it. It is a sad reality when the government can rush legislation to make things less transparent when they still cannot implement a functional ICAC in three years.
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Authorised by Michael Hopper, Independent Senator Candidate for South Australia.
PO Box 94, Kensington Park, SA, 5068