The late former Labor MP and prominent state Labor secretary Mick Young first promoted a federal corruption commission in 1986. Source: AdelaideNow

Ironically, the concept of such a commission was first raised in Australia at a national level 30 years ago.

Unpublicised, an independent agency to tackle corruption had been considered - but not proceeded with - in 1982 by the coalition government under Malcolm Fraser. The interest of the Fraser administration was acknowledged in a book on the history of Hong Kong's world-renowned Independent Commission Against Corruption, established in 1974.

Such a commission for Australia was first promoted publicly in 1986 by former shearer and union official Mick Young, while serving as special minister of state in the Labor government of Bob Hawke.

Young even visited Hong Kong to study the ICAC concept.

As Young then saw the situation, "high profits of crime often lead to corruption of the judiciary, law enforcement and executive arms of government".

The Young initiative fell on deaf ears among fellow Labor as well as Liberal and National Party politicians.

At a state level, Gary Sturgess, parliamentary researcher for then NSW opposition leader Nick Greiner, also undertook a study of Hong Kong's ICAC and prepared a strategy for a similar state anti-corruption agency, established when the Greiner coalition gained power in 1988. Queensland and Western Australia soon followed and all other states now have their own commissions.

At the federal level, however, the Young initiative remained shelved under Paul Keating and under the succeeding Coalition government of John Howard.

After all those years, a private member's bill for the establishment of a national integrity commission was moved by then Greens leader Bob Brown, on June 23, 2010, under Labor PM Kevin Rudd. The next day Rudd was replaced by Julia Gillard, who called an election two months later, which resulted in a hung parliament. To secure the numbers to govern, Gillard struck a deal with the Greens, which included appointing a so-called parliamentary integrity commissioner (which has not happened), but not a national integrity commission to cover politicians and public servants.

Brown resubmitted his private member's bill a month later on September 30. His first bill had lapsed with the calling of the election and after he announced his retirement as Greens leader in April this year, his bill was resubmitted by Adam Bandt, the newly elected deputy leader of the Greens.

In doing so, Bandt referred to the fact that "this parliament, the media and it seems perhaps the whole country has been obsessed about allegations against some members of this place". He was backed by Greens leader Christine Milne, who said the time was ripe for a national integrity commission "to rebuild public confidence in our parliament and public service".

Notwithstanding support for the bill from independents Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and senator Nick Xenophon, the bill was referred to the House of Representatives committee on social policy and legal affairs, made up of only Labor and Coalition members, which did not bother to call for submissions or hold public hearings.

Even so, it had to acknowledge one unsought submission lodged on behalf of the Law Council of Australia. It raised possible amendments on legal and technical grounds but argued that "nevertheless, there are persuasive arguments that a federal anti-corruption body is needed to ensure transparency and accountability in the conduct of its officials".

The committee, though, argued against the bill, claiming, among other things, that it might "intersect with and potentially duplicate existing legislation ... "

That was not surprising, considering that in February the government itself had tabled in parliament a response to a recommendation from another committee: the parliamentary joint committee on the Australian commission for law enforcement integrity, which has oversight of the Australian Federal Police, Australian Crime Commission and other law enforcement entities.

The committee recommended that the government conduct a review of the commonwealth integrity system with "particular examination of the merits of establishing a commonwealth integrity commission with anti-corruption oversight of all commonwealth public sector agencies, with the ACLEI retaining oversight of law enforcement agencies".

The government's response was that "on available evidence there is no convincing case for the establishment of a single overarching integrity commission".

The committee's concluding recommendation was that the bill not proceed prior to the establishment of a further separate inquiry into its feasibility and cost by a parliamentary joint select committee. That has not happened.

In any case, the committee suggested taking into account the results of public consultation on a National Anti-Corruption Plan, announced by the government in September last year and to have been completed in mid-2012 although still ongoing. The plan was to consider a simple code of conduct for politicians and proper whistleblower protection.

A discussion paper on the plan issued by the Attorney-General's Department has come under criticism for not canvassing the option of a national integrity commission and promoting instead the perpetuation of a multi-agency model.

In a submission, Transparency International Australia recommended a common central agency, pointing out that, contrary to perceptions, Australian public affairs since the 1980s have continued to feature major corruption scandals, notably the Australian Wheat Board Limited and Securency and Note Printing Australia cases.

TIA referred to the results of Australian Public Service Code of Conduct investigations which uncovered hundreds of cases: 86 cases of conflict of interest in 2010-11 (a rise of 41 per cent over the previous year), 83 cases of fraud ( up 36 per cent), 64 cases of theft (a rise of 36 per cent), 50 cases of improper use of position ( up 67 per cent ) and 71 cases of unauthorised disclosure of information

A submission from the Accountability Round Table pointed to the federal government having contributed very substantial sums of money to efforts to address corruption across the world, yet successive governments having failed to lead by example at a national level in Australia.

John McFarlane, an assistant investigator with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security, based at the Australian National University in Canberra, warned in a submission that if the federal government continued to rely on a multi-agency model, it "would, in the long term, be to invite failure".

An embarrassment for federal politicians has been the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference, held every two years since 2007.

Hosted by state anti-corruption commissions, the absence of federal representation has been conspicuous, while a special feature has been speakers on behalf of national anti-corruption commissions from Hong Kong, Thailand, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

As parliament was about to end its sittings for this year, Milne was quoted in Hansard expressing dismay: "For the life of me, I cannot understand why neither the government nor the Coalition is prepared to back a national integrity commission."

The population at large may well wonder why federal Labor and Coalition politicians should be so fearful of such scrutiny.

Bob Bottom was engaged as a consultant in the establishment of NSW's pioneering ICAC.