A joint statement from thirteen independents and the Greens outlines six key areas it says will form the necessary support infrastructure for a successful commission.
They include stronger whistleblower protection and funding transparency. A whistleblower is a person who reveals information about activity within a private or public organisation that is deemed illegal.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge says his party wants the most powerful, broad-ranging federal regulator possible.
”We want to make sure there is jurisdiction there for the ICAC to not just get corporations that contract with the government, but get corporations that are trying to make billions and billions of dollars from changing government policy, or getting discretionary decisions like a coal mine approved. They need to be roped into the jurisdiction, and this needs independent funding. We can’t have the government of the day starving it of funds so it can’t do it’s job. There needs to be a multi-party committee that is basically setting the funding for this commission.”
The Albanese government is preparing to hand down its first budget on October 25.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has described the upcoming financial statement as a "bread and butter budget" - meaning basic or ordinary - focusing on spending cuts and easing the cost of living pressures.
The treasurer has not ruled out wide-ranging tax reform to improve the sustainability of the budget, but says making multinational corporations pay a fairer share of tax is the top priority.
Speaking during Question Time, Mr Chalmers says Labor is trying to shift away from a legacy of wasteful budget spending passed on from the former government.
"The task of the budget will be to provide responsible cost of living relief that has an economic dividend, and that’s why cheaper childcare is so important with an economic dividend, cheaper TAFE fees, cheaper medicines getting wages moving again, beginning with the lowest paid Australians. This is why this is so important. I think Australians understand that the new government is doing what it can to responsibly provide cost of living relief to Australians. They know the mess they (Coalition) left us can’t be fixed in one budget alone."
