But a fight by Independent MP Helen Haines,the Greens and other crossbenchers to amend the bill to remove or relax the provisions thatlimit public hearings to “exceptional circumstances” is expected to be thwarted by the government and Coalition.
Haines,who has been a key player in the push for a federal integrity body,said she would seek to scrap the exceptional circumstances clause in section 73,viewing it as the biggest flaw in an otherwise “very good bill”,but she was not optimistic it would be widely supported.
“I’m really disappointed that the government seemed reluctant to budge on this because I think it is a real problem in terms of transparency,” Haines said.
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“This is going to be something for us all to watch when this commission is stood up - just how often we see a public hearing. That will be the test really,about whether the clause was ever required.”
Labor will instead seek to amend the bill in line with thesix recommendations made by a parliamentary committee earlier this month,such as extending protections for the non-disclosure of identities of journalists’ sources and strengthening the remit of the NACC Inspector’s oversight function.
The exceptional circumstances test is modelled on a similar provision used by the Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission. During the parliamentary inquiry into the bill,IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich warned against adopting its threshold for public hearings,saying it had placed an “artificial limit” on the state agency.