MARK DREYFUS MP

Justice Kirby’s contributions to this nation are significant, and go far beyond the courtroom. It is absolutely right the ALRC has chosen to honour its inaugural chair, Justice Kirby, with this lecture series, highlighting his record not only as a jurist but as a great advocate of reform.

The measures in the bill will restore integrity and transparency to the process of appointing elected officials to high office, and ensure we have a system of government where there are checks and balances. Never again will one person be able to garner powers without adequate, and warranted, accountability to the Australian people and the Australian parliament.

This legislation delivers the single-biggest integrity reform this parliament has seen in decades. When you change the government you change the country. The National Anti-Corruption Commission will change our country forever. The Albanese Labor government has delivered. The government supports these amendments.

Censure is the appropriate response to the findings by the Honourable Virginia Bell AC that the Member for Cook, while Prime Minister of Australia, appointed himself to administer five additional departments and failed to inform the Cabinet, failed to inform the relevant departments, failed to inform the House of Representatives and failed to inform the Australian public.

The Public Interest Disclosure Amendment (Review) Bill will implement key recommendations of the 2016 review of the Public Interest Disclosure Act by Mr Philip Moss AM (the Moss review) and parliamentary committee reports to deliver immediate improvements to our public sector whistleblowing scheme. These reforms are long overdue.

For many Australians, religion forms a central part of their personal identity and value system, and it helps guide how they want to raise their families. The central themes of law and justice in both Jewish religious and secular traditions have great meaning for me and have helped to shape my worldview.

The Government is committed to ensuring a strong regulatory framework to protect people’s right to privacy and ensuring the security of their personal information.

My university years coincided with the Whitlam Government, and the wave of social change it would bring inspired in me my passion for politics and its potential to improve lives.

That experience stayed with me all my life, that a progressive government can change the country. That experience that politics is a worthwhile activity has never left me.

It’s why I left the law to become an MP, and now, as Commonwealth Attorney-General have the great privilege to speak with Australia’s next generation of legal practitioners.

The Albanese Government is delivering on its promise to tackle corruption and restore trust and integrity to public institutions.

While law enforcement methods have evolved, we continue to grapple with new and innovative technologies that facilitate and hide the sexual abuse of children.