Deputy Speaker,

Improving integrity and good governance was a major election commitment of the Albanese Labor government.

This was rightly one of the Australian people’s top priorities at the last federal election.

And it has been clear to me (and I’ve spoken about it many times) that we need to rebuild the ethical infrastructure of our nation.

Why?

Because it is very clear our trajectory as a country has not been good enough in recent years.

Australia’s international reputation for having robust institutions, the rule of law, and integrity has been backsliding against many metrics.

We see this in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, which measures trust in government.

That data showed that, between 2012 and 2018, Australia slid to 13th place in the index.

A 2018 Australia Institute report calculated that perceptions of growing corruption in Australia shaved 4% off our GDP due to the hit to business confidence.

That had a real cost to us of $72 billion.

Between 2018 and 2021, Australia also dropped five more slots to reach 18th place in the Corruption Perception Index.

The picture is even more abysmal when you add to it the result of the the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer, which found that trust in government declined precipitously in 2021.

And we know the reasons.

The study found that politics is now viewed as a dividing force by Australians.

The Member for Kennedy mentioned being part of a fascist government that locked people up for protesting.

Well…

61% of Australians responding to this study reported feeling unable to have civil debates about issues they disagree on.

As Members know, the culture of this place is often seen as a bellwether of this broader social malaise of distrust.

That is why there was such an urgent need for action when the Albanese Labor Government came to office.

And that is why we quickly moved to implement our commitment to legislate a powerful, transparent, and independent National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) Act, which passed both Houses of Parliament in November.

Our government is also reforming whistleblower protections through the Public Interest Disclosure Amendment (Review) Bill 2022.

This is all part of our commitment to the Australian people to restore trust and integrity to government.

Today, we are considering a piece of legislation to increase transparency that many of us never thought we would need.

The Ministers of State Amendment Bill 2022 before us today will implement reforms that foster transparency and accountability in our system of government.

This Bill responds to the revelations that Australians learned in August last year that their former Prime Minister, the Member for Cook, had secretly sworn himself into five extra portfolios occupied by his own ministers in 2020 and 2021.

So that, in addition to being appointed to administer the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the former Prime Minister was invested with the power to administer:

• the Departments of Health
• Finance
• Industry, Science, Energy and Resources
• Treasury
• and Home Affairs

The news of these secret appointments shocked many Australians.

As it shocked Members on all sides of this Parliament.

This was an issue that truly cut across political lines.

Of these multiple portfolios, former Prime Minister John Howard said, “I don't think he should have done that. I don't think there was any need to do it, and I wouldn't have.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, “I’m just not going to defend what was done. It is just highly unconventional, highly unorthodox and shouldn’t have happened.”

Malcolm Turnbull said, “This is sinister stuff. This is secret government. This is one of the most appalling things I've ever heard in our federal government. I mean, the idea that a Prime Minister would be sworn in to other ministers secretly is incredible.”

End quote.

It was in this context of widespread and bipartisan shock that the Government acted to prevent this ever happening again.

The Government referred these matters to the Solicitor-General, Dr Stephen Donaghue KC.

As was clear from his advice, to quote: “The principles of responsible government are fundamentally undermined by the actions of the former government.”

End quote.

Many who still sit on the Opposition LNP benches.

In his advice, the Solicitor-General noted that, “The Governor-General has no discretion to refuse to accept the Prime Minister’s advice in relation to such an appointment.”

But while the Solicitor-General advised that Prime Minister Scott Morrison had acted lawfully and in accordance with the constitution, he did so only because the current rules did not require notification of such an appointment to be valid.

That is an omission that we learned can be misused to undermine transparency in federal parliament at the very least, and to accumulate power in too few hands at worst.

Following the Solicitor General’s advice, it was also clear that an appropriate and swift Inquiry was needed.

So, on 26 August 2022, the Prime Minister and the Attorney General, the Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP, announced the appointment of former High Court Justice, the Hon Virginia Bell AC, to lead the Inquiry into the Appointment of the former Prime Minister to Administer Multiple Departments.

The Report was provided to the Government on 25 November 2022 and has been published online.

This is an outstanding, incisive report that goes to the core of this unfortunate story in vivid detail.

Thanks to the Report, for example, we know that Mr Frydenberg, the then Treasurer, was not informed of the then Prime Minister’s appointment to administer the Department of the Treasury.

The Report draws on first-hand interviews with parliamentarians and officials involved in this case.

The Inquiry was not about the politics, but about how this happened, why it happened, and who knew about it.

The Ministers of State Amendment Bill 2022 forms one part of the Government’s response to Ms Bell’s recommendations.

In response, the Bill will require the Official Secretary to the Governor-General to publish a notifiable instrument, registered on the Federal Register of Legislation, as soon as reasonably practicable, that the Governor-General has chosen, summoned, and sworn an Executive Councillor to the Federal Executive Council, appointed an officer to administer a Department of State, or directed a Minister of State to hold an office.

It will also require notification when any of these positions are revoked.

The notifiable instrument will include the name of the person, the Department of State and the date on which they were sworn, appointed or directed.

In the case of revocations, the notifiable instrument must include the name of the person, the name of the former office, and the date that such membership, appointment, or direction was revoked.

This Bill demonstrates the Government’s readiness to act promptly to restore the Australian people’s confidence in our Federal system of government, and to rebuild integrity in public sector institutions, processes and officials.

Transparency in government processes is not a nice-to-have.

It is essential because our system of parliamentary democracy relies on conventions and checks and balances.

And as the Solicitor-General concluded: “It is impossible for the parliament to hold ministers to account for the administration of departments if it does not know which ministers are responsible for which departments.”

The measures in the Bill will go some way to provide greater integrity and transparency around the process of appointing elected officials to high office – and especially to ensure we have a system of government where one person cannot again garner powers without adequate accountability to the Australian people and the Australian Parliament.

It will ensure the Australian people are able to access information relating to the composition of the Federal Executive Council, those appointed to administer certain Departments of State, and the high offices that Ministers of State hold.

This is a technical change with positive and long-term implications for our democracy.

Like the American experiment, the Australian project relies for its legitimacy in the eyes of the people on a raft of rules, principles, and conventions that are not necessarily laws.

In this case, the convention was that members of the executive could not legitimately accrue more power without their own parliamentary colleagues and the public knowing about it.

Our system of government had until now assumed this norm to be widely understood and to not need any specific Act of Parliament to enshrine it into law.

Unfortunately, we have learned not to assume anything.

I wish there had been no need for this Bill but there clearly is.

And so, I commend this Bill to the House and welcome this reform that will strengthen transparency and good governance no matter the government of the day.

Crucially, this Bill will also help to restore citizens’ trust in government from the dangerously low levels we have seen.

It will make our democracy stronger by shedding light on ministerial and other high-level appointments.

In a mature democracy like ours, this shouldn’t be optional.

It should be the law.

And this Bill makes sure that it is.

And joins with our other measures to start rebuilding the ethical infrastructure of our great nation.

That’s what the Australian people expect of all of us.

And so, I call on all sides of Parliament to support this Bill.

Thanks Deputy Speaker.