Independent senator Jacqui Lambie says the government’s proposed corruption watchdog should hold hearings in public.

The government last week unveiled its national anti-corruption commission legislation.

But crossbenchers raised concerns about the high threshold for public hearings, which would only be conducted in “exceptional circumstances”.

Senator Lambie said there needs to be a fair and robust discussion about which commissioners are selected and how they would choose to interpret the threshold.

But public hearings would be needed to build trust within the community, she said.

“If people are doing the wrong things and it is political corruption then anybody else in a normal court system has to go through that system,” she told the ABC.

“If that means being out in the public arena, that’s what happens.

“We do those things to make sure it’s a deterrent to not happen in the future.”

But the Tasmanian senator said the commissioners would “need to have a lot of evidence on the table and they know, more than likely … whoever they got is under corruption” before holding a public hearing.

Senator Lambie said she wouldn’t seek to block the legislation “on two words”.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission would operate independently of the government and have powers to investigate serious or systemic corrupt conduct across the commonwealth public sector.

– AAP

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