Federal Labor says it will move forward with a national integrity commission if it wins the upcoming election, while the Prime Minister has blamed the opposition for delays. 

The federal opposition has frequently attacked the Coalition for not introducing a national anti-corruption body. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced plans for such a commission in December 2018, but has failed to introduce legislation to parliament for a vote since then. 

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese now says; “Australians have waited more than 1,200 days for the national integrity commission to be introduced to parliament”.

“I am proud to announce that a national anti-corruption commission would be one of the first priorities of a government I lead,” Mr Albanese said.

The Prime Minister has not matched the commitment, saying he would not put forth a bill for a vote until he is confident of bipartisan support.

Mr Morrison claims his bill was not introduced into parliament because Labor was opposed to it, despite the Coalition having a majority in the lower house.

“At the last election we said we would seek to put one in place,” Mr Morrison said.

“We developed a policy, developed detailed legislation, the Labor Party didn't agree with it.”

Labor says it will attempt to legislate a national integrity commission even if the Coalition does not support its proposed model.

Some of the debate around the Morrison government’s planned integrity commission related to whether it would be retrospective - allowing it to look into actions taken by earlier governments. The ALP thinks it should be

“Think about all the scandals we have seen from this government, the reporting of $100 million of taxpayers' money with sports rorts, the allocation of money for car parks at railway stations that don't exist,” Labor's campaign spokesman, Jason Clare, said on the weekend.

“It needs to have the ability to go back and look at the rorting of taxpayers' money.”