He is supported by former Liberal party leader John Hewson who said Australians are "almost at breaking point" on the issue of transparency and accountability. He cited the row over his own party's electoral software company Parakeelia, as the latest in a succession of issues at federal and state level "calling for decisive action". He said an anti-corruption body would be a key element of national integrity reform which should also include a rewrite of campaign funding and lobbying rules. Mr Samuel, now an academic at Monash University, said a national integrity body would need to avoid the shortcomings of similar state bodies, notably NSW's Independent Commission Against Corruption and its very public but failed probe of crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen. He said such bodies were at risk of compromising the integrity of their own work, and the reputations of public figures for questionable purposes – politics, and media profile. "My experience with the ACCC highlighted that the best investigation and enforcement outcomes involved a process conducted privately." Founding ACCC chairman, professor Allan Fels AO, has also called for national integrity reform. The leading economist, lawyer said that to date there had not been the levels of corruption at the national level, revealed by agencies like NSW ICAC at state level.

"But it would be wise from a precautionary perspective to head off the problem of corruption and misconduct at the federal level, particularly given the growth in international financial contributions to the Australian political scene." The calls for change come after a string of scandals and sagas around political donations including backdoor developer payments to the NSW Liberals through a federal Liberal fundraising body, foreign bribery payments and kickbacks, allegations of Border Force corruption, and insider trading at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Mr Hewson agreed a national ICAC would need to be careful to protect the rights of those people it investigated and questioned. "What you want is that those who are guilty are genuinely accountable and subject to the full force of the law. To the extent that the process compromises that, I think you've got to be pretty careful." Integrity experts including Queensland anti-corruption stalwart Tony Fitzgerald have previously supported an anti-corruption commission last year telling the ABC's Leigh Sales that there was no reason to believe that the federal sphere was any cleaner than state politics. "I think it's self-evident," he said at the time. "The people who go into State Parliaments and the major political parties are the same people who go into Federal Parliament," said Mr Fitzgerald. "I cannot understand why they'd be corrupt at one level, or be corruptible at one level, and not at the other."

His views echo those of Labor's retired integrity champion, John Faulkner, who told the Senate in 2014 that the issues being raised at the NSW ICAC "do not miraculously stop at state or territory borders". "It is reasonable that this Parliament consider how we can strengthen the Commonwealth government's integrity and its resistance to corruption," he said in 2014. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has promised limited reform of donation laws, notably a reduction of the disclosure threshold from $13,200 to $1000. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has supported donations reform in principle, but has failed to commit himself. The Greens have backed both a dedicated national integrity body and a sweeping rewrite of campaign funding laws. Got a tip? Contact us securely at JournoTips or SecureDrop