Sadly, when it comes to integrity-related policies they are arguably all three, as every one of the above explanations is clearly evident in Australia's shameful federal political donations regime and the policy farce that surrounds most aspects of the government's proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission.

With a federal election looming the Australian people will go to the polls ignorant, yet again, of who donated how much and to whom.

This saga has been dragging on for decades and has been the subject of numerous reports by parliamentary committees, particularly the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, which, by the way, had five chairs in a 12-month period - 2015-16. If such disrespect for the role of an important parliamentary committee isn't one of the worst jokes played on Australian voters, I don't know what is.

The need to reform the opaque political donations regime was the subject of former senator John Faulkner's 2008 Electoral Reform Green Paper: Donations, Funding and Expenditure. Faulkner tried to reform the system but alas without success.

The best that MPs have delivered to the Australian people over decades is reform to foreign donations laws.

What is needed is for the Labor Party, independents, minor parties and every government member genuinely committed to transparency and accountability in public life, to come together to fix what can be politely described as a disgraceful, self-serving political donations regime.

This bad joke also makes a mockery of the empty but often sprouted words of all MPs, that they are listening to the Australian community and acting on their concerns. Actions speak louder than words and clearly the government, in particular, is not listening to the community's consistent message.

Perhaps political donations reform could become a top priority for Australia's new Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce as presumably he is the Deputy PM for all Australians, not just those associated with the fossil fuel industry or even those living in regional and rural areas.

It is evident that the Commonwealth Integrity Commission is suffering the same fate as the political donations regime, as it too is a bad joke. Who, I wonder, is laughing? Perhaps it is the architect of the model, former attorney-general Mr Christian Porter, and those MPs in his party who publicly back the model. If that is the case, they are the only ones laughing as the model is not supported by the Labor Party, independents, the Greens, other minor parties and all experts who made a submission to the Attorney-General's Department public consultation on the exposure draft Bill.

The minister who inherited this embarrassing model, Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, has been conspicuously silent on the matter until a few days ago when she spoke briefly on the subject in Parliament. However, Senator Cash neglected to mention that the latest budget failed to provide any funding for a CIC.

But surely the establishment of a federal integrity commission should be a top priority for her, especially as nine out of 10 Australians want the government to create a body that has the powers and resources required to deliver effective public sector accountability.

The Australian community has every right to expect the government to establish a body that ensures the most powerful people in Australia are accountable for their actions and, crucially, in a transparent and enforceable manner.

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Surely this glaring hole in our democratic political system should have been addressed by now.

The question that needs to be answered is why hasn't it been? The explanation that no Australian voter will accept is that the government needs to continue conducting what is already a two year and seven month consultation process. How much longer is this joke going to continue?

Doesn't the government realise that Australians see through the CIC charade. I say charade as the model has been exposed as such by every expert in the public sector anti-corruption-accountability field. As they explain, the government's model is deliberately designed to protect members of parliament, their staff and most appointed public servants from genuine and transparent accountability. It would serve to conceal, not expose, corruption.

The bad joke being played on all Australians is that - yet again - we will be forced to go to the polls without significant and much needed reform to the federal political donations regime and - yet again - without a federal anti-corruption body.

The best models for delivering a transparent political donations regime and effective CIC are not secrets. Models, based on the public interest in both areas are in the public domain. All the government and parliament need to do is respond positively to expert opinion. The government claims to be doing so in relation to COVID-19 policy, so why not in relation to integrity-related policies?

While expressed in different ways, the strong, research-based message from all experts in both policy areas is that the current political donations regime and Commonwealth Integrity Commission are bad jokes. Perhaps the government is laughing too loudly for it to hear the message.