The independent MP Helen Haines has left open the possibility of again attempting to legislate her federal integrity commission before the election, as another Liberal MP breaks ranks to support a “multi-partisan” approach to the vexed issue.
After the prime minister, Scott Morrison, confirmed this week that the government would fail to deliver on its election commitment to introduce its own bill for a federal anti-corruption body, Haines told parliament that the government had played “the public for a patsy”.
“I will never stop bringing this to the attention of this House, even in the dying days of this parliament,” Haines said.
“The prime minister’s laughable excuse that he cannot legislate his integrity commission proposal because the opposition won’t support it is totally absurd.
“The legislating of a federal integrity commission was a character test for this prime minister and his government, and I stand here today saying he has failed that character test.”
Haines also accused Morrison of misleading her over the issue, saying he had initially suggested he wanted to work on the issue in a bipartisan way, but this had not happened. She said the government had undertaken “fake consultation” on its bill, which was released as a draft in November 2020 and underwent an extensive public consultation process last year.
“The facts are clear. He had no intention of working on this in a bipartisan way,” she said.
The Liberal MP Bridget Archer – who crossed the floor last year to support Haines’s bill – said it remained her view that legislating an integrity commission remained “one of the most important things” parliament needed to do.
However, she cast doubt on the ability for Haines’ bill to be supported before the election, with just one sitting week for the federal budget remaining before the election.
“I do believe that this issue needs to be debated. It is also clear that this parliament is running out of time to be able to legislate an integrity bill.
“I’ve continued to have those discussions over summer, and they had been met in good faith. But I don’t think that we are going to get there in this term of parliament,” she said.
“I would just urge all parties to put the politics aside and come back here to the 47th parliament in good faith and get this done.”
The outgoing Liberal MP John Alexander, who told Guardian Australia he would consider crossing the floor to support Haines’s bill if it again came to a vote before the election, joined Archer, Haines and other crossbench MPs on Thursday to call for a multi-partisan approach to the issue.
“We must stop bashing heads, and instead put our heads together to work our way forward,” Alexander said.
“This is too important to play politics with, because we’ve seen what happens around the world when people lose trust in their elected representatives.
“So let’s form a team. A team is a group of people who come together with a common goal. Let’s form a team to represent Australians, to ensure honesty and integrity as the foundations for those who represent us and those who seek to lead.”
This week, Morrison defended the government’s failure to progress the bill, attempting to blame the Labor party for not supporting the bill.
“We’ve tabled our legislation for that integrity commission. The Labor party don’t support it, and that’s why it’s not proceeding.”
But the decision to shelve the legislation has angered many Liberal MPs, particularly those fighting off challenges from independents in Liberal-held metropolitan seats who have made integrity a key campaign issue.
The Liberal MPs Jason Falinski and Celia Hammond previously told Guardian Australia that the government should introduce the bill before the election to kickstart debate on the issue and fulfil the government’s election pledge.
