Before the last election in 2022, the Labor opposition promised to establish an integrity commission that would have a broad jurisdiction and strong investigative powers including the capacity to hold public hearings when it was in the public interest to do so.
This had been widely supported in the community, including by an open letter sent to the then Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, in December 2018, signed by 34 judges (including myself). Three former chief justices of the High Court (Sir Anthony Mason, Sir Gerard Brennan and Murray Gleeson AC) had also expressed their support for commissions being entitled to hold public hearings.