I rise this evening to support the Integrity Bill 2009 introduced by this government which is the next step on from the Integrity and accountability in Queensland discussion paper, which we released just three months ago to seek input from members of the community on Queensland’s integrity and accountability framework. We wanted to hear the community’s suggestions about improvements to government policy and how our systems could be strengthened.

This new Integrity Bill 2009 will do several things. Firstly, it will create a new stand-alone Integrity Act to enhance the functions and independence of the Integrity Commissioner and will create a statutory basis for the register of lobbyists and, most importantly, ban the payment of success fees which have been touted by lobbyists as an integral part of the process but, as we all know, in this open and accountable Bligh Labor government, are entirely unnecessary and unwarranted.

After the Premier announced the Integrity and accountability in Queensland discussion paper, I immediately held a number of mobile offices in my electorate to talk to community members about their views on how government is going and what steps we should take to strengthen our accountability measures. The feedback was quite interesting. A number of people said that they thought that they were overgoverned in general but still thought that elected members of government of all levels had to answer to basically no-one. So we needed to fix that. I spent the time talking to people about the various checks and balances in place to ensure members of parliament and our system of government could function in a legal and ethical manner. It is interesting that people do not understand how lobbying works and the variety of accountability mechanisms that this government has put in place to ensure that there is openness and consistency about access to government. Some of these were detailed by the member for Broadwater, especially as she was talking about community cabinets, one of which we have again this weekend.

We have instigated a lobbyist register which will come under the jurisdiction of the Integrity
Commissioner and will include the name and business registration details for the lobbyists and the names of each client who is involved in the previous year. Importantly, the register must include the names of people who are former senior government representatives either from the Public Service or from the parliament. I think that it is important that non-government companies are given the opportunity of utilising people who are experienced in how government works, but there needs to be checks and balances in place and openness and accountability. That is what we are delivering.

As a member of the current Members’ Ethics and Parliamentary Privileges Committee, I was pleased to see that the Integrity Commissioner will become an officer of the parliament and that my renamed committee will have the additional responsibility of the oversight of the performance and functions of the Integrity Commissioner. The Integrity Commissioner will have responsibility for the Register of Members’ Interests and the subsequent online publishing of it. This government strongly believes in accountability and integrity of our parliamentary system and our system of government, and I commend the bill to the House.