Helen Haines seeks ICAC bill oversight role

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has garnered praise from crossbenchers in the House and Senate for recent roundtable consultations over the signature Labor election promise to establish a federal ICAC with "teeth" by the end of the year. It is an ambitious time frame although the government is not planning to circulate an exposure draft for wider discussion.

The federal member for Indi, who has her own highly regarded federal ICAC legislation and has also had discussions with Mr Dreyfus, still has concerns and questions regarding whistleblower protections and independent funding of the commission.

Dr Haines is hoping to have a leading role on a joint parliamentary committee expected to be established as soon as the bill is introduced.

"I've made my request to the Attorney-General and to the Prime Minister and I've also spoken to the shadow attorney-general, Julian Leeser, again to put myself forward in that in a senior role on the committee," she told The Canberra Times.

"I've got a lot of skin in the game. I've put forward a bill in the last Parliament that's been widely called 'gold standard' and I think I can contribute in a really effective way on this committee."

Dr Haines is hoping to co-chair the committee or perhaps be the deputy chair.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pledged a strong national anti-corruption commission that has the power to investigate "as it sees fit", and as recently as last week Mr Dreyfus stated the government would be "legislating a powerful, independent and transparent National Anti-Corruption Commission this year".

The bill is still being drafted, but is expected to go to cabinet soon.

"I think that cabinet needs to consider very carefully the committee that will be doing the inquiry on the legislation given that we're not seeing an exposure draft," she has told The Canberra Times.

"There's a real opportunity in that committee to do good collaborative work to get the best possible piece of legislation that we can before the House.

"I want to be in a senior role on that committee and contribute to that good work. So I think that's really important. And I think the clarity around whistleblower protection has got to be there. And clarity around this parliamentary oversight, statutory committee and independent funding, those things are crucial to make sure that this is the bill that we need."

She said there is a "compelling" case to clean up our whistleblower protection laws more broadly, but she wants a clear connection between the ICAC legislation and whistleblower protection.

"I'd ideally like to see a whistleblower protection commissioner," Dr Haines offered. "But I absolutely want to see that the public interest disclosure act is updated before anyone is ever referred to this new national anti-corruption commission."

Dr Haines also wants to be involved in a statutory oversight committee to oversee the federal anti-corruption commission to ensure it is independent and well-resourced.