Thank you all for signing and sharing this petition. I am an everyday mum of four young adults - with no connection to any lobby groups or political parties that can financially back this petition so it will grow quickly.
The reality is that having money and backers willing to pay for ads/promotions for a petition is what really gains tens of thousands of signatures on many of the petitions on Change.
So for this petition to GROW without constant promotion/advertising on Change - I need MANY of you to SHARE this petition as much as you can with like-minded friends and family.
It is the last two weeks of Federal Parliament. The Australian people have no idea if it will be the last sitting of parliament before the next election as Federal Governments unlike our States, always love to keep us uninformed and go to an election when it best suits the Government of the day - not planned so the Australian people KNOW what to expect.
Federal Governments seem to love long, torturous, drawn out faux campaigns INTENDED so we the Australian people, are screaming for relief by Election Day!
We know the PM Scott Morrison has NEVER wanted a NSW-style ICAC - long before Gladys Berejiklian willingly fell on her sword (no she was not forced to resign!) One can only wonder WHY she is resigning from State Parliament? Is it to try to stall deeper investigation? Or a dramatic way of moving into Federal politics hoping to garner the public sympathy vote?
Strange as to why her most loyal supporters want to believe she turned a blind eye to her lover's obvious corruption because she was like an innocent teenage girl 'in love' - when she has clearly stated - over and over - that the relationship wasn't significant enough to tell anyone about it.
How can you pretend you were so 'in love' and innocently and blindly misled by someone you were too embarrassed to admit to your friends and colleagues you were even in a relationship with? That kind of 'defence' makes absolutely no sense!
Despite good guy Barry O'Farrell also falling on his sword after NSW ICAC uncovered his innocent mistake of forgetting he was gifted an expensive bottle of wine - years later we learn he'd actually held a SECRET meeting in Alan Jones' apartment that help lead to Sydney's Crown Casino being built on PUBLIC land! Not so innocent and up-front after all?
Where there is smoke there is almost always FIRE people!
As pointed out in 'the Examiner' last month, (attached to this update) the actions of a number of Mr Morrison's own Ministers - "controversies involving his government which, if they had occurred in NSW, would almost certainly have resulted in investigations by the NSW ICAC."
This fear of a Federal ICAC has caused MPs like Barnaby "I gave $80M of Public Money to a mate of Angus Taylor's for ghost-water" Joyce to campaign actively AGAINST any ICAC using ridiculous and melodramatic statements:
"The process of ICAC is lauded by people who want greater power for minority groups against the wishes of the majority," he said on Monday. "This is not the great sort of righteous process, it's a little bit like the Spanish Inquisition."
REALLY?
Now we find out that Pauline Hanson ('the Champion of the battler' she'd LIKE us to believe!) and her party on Wednesday 23/11/2021 voted AGAINST any debate being held in the Senate on a Federal ICAC.
Perhaps no doubt related to her and her One Nation Party's courting America's NRA by promising to weaken the Gun Laws supported by Australians if the NRA helped finance her party's election campaign in 2019?
Not very 'Australian' was it? In fact one could almost suggest it was treasonable?
In fact Ms Hanson also likes to pretend (when things go wrong!) that she is a victim - taken advantage of by the men in her party - when she CHOOSES men without integrity like James Ashby, to be her party's Hench men - despite her insistence she is only in Parliament to represent the 'little people' of Australia. Pauline obviously believes that ethics are unnecessary!
"There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel." ~ Vladimir Lenin
In his article last month in the Sydney Morning Herald, David Crowe discussed the current Federal Government's lack of appetite for an Federal ICAC after NSW ICAC's investigations into Gladys Berejiklian's behaviour (and no - despite the controversy and sympathy it is really NOT about her love-life!)
He discussed the Federal Government's legislation which the suddenly very quiet Attorney-General Michaelia Cash is working on, and whether the Government will incorporate any of the criticisms about the toothlessness of their Legislation after consultation (which ended in February this year and attracted 313 submissions)
https://www.ag.gov.au/submissions-received-commonwealth-integrity-commission-consultation-draft
Those who are really interested in WHY the Government is scared of NSW's ICAC are encouraged to read ANZSOG (The Australia and New Zealand School of Government) NSW Premier’s Chair in Public Service Delivery Professor Gary Sturgess' explanation of the NSW ICAC model in this article:
SBS in October this year compared the NSW ICAC to the Government's proposed model and it makes for interesting reading explaining simply the controversy about the current Federal Government's useless and toothless proposal.
Yes the Australian people in their majority- if you believe the polls - WANT a tough, Independent Federal ICAC but many of our Federal Politicians DO NOT.
THEY like the system as it is and do not think they NEED to be accountable pointing to the election process - where they use donors money in huge ad campaigns to mislead (remember the $1080 tax rebate for "everybody"?) blatantly lie and obfuscate so that as in the last election - we often have no idea WHAT we are actually voting for!
Many Federal Politicians are so scared of a TRULY accountable Federal ICAC that BOTH Helen Haines' and Larissa Waters' Bills were sent to Parliamentary Committees where concerns about Federal Politicians' HUMAN RIGHTS were raised!
Ridiculously ludicrous in a country where POLITICIANS have NEVER passed LEGISLATION for our homeless to be afforded the BASIC HUMAN RIGHT to SAFETY and SHELTER!
The decisions MADE by our Federal elected Representatives about the SPENDING of OUR PUBLIC MONEY and changes that affect our everyday lives should be about IMPROVING the lives of ALL of the people in Australia - and Federal Politicians MUST show us the RESPECT we DESERVE by implementing a STRONG, RETROSPECTIVE ICAC and a CODE OF CONDUCT that truly makes THEM accountable for the choices THEY make about OUR lives.
Not ridiculous Clayton's ICAC Legislation masquerading as something it is definitely NOT!
And finally just for interest - which Government Ministers might be at risk from a REAL Federal Integrity Commission?
https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/10/04/who-would-federal-icac-have-in-its-sights/