The commissions on the table, the COVID-19 question, media and lobbying, and the standing transparency machinery — five parties, from the parliamentary record and each party’s own statements, with the check date on the table. The Sovereign Australia column restates the published policy: seven Royal Commissions in the first term — the Sunlight Agenda — with full coercive powers, no carve-outs, and the first commission within 90 days.
Checked 27 August 2026. Sources: the parliamentary record — the Senate committee reports of 2024 recommending a COVID-19 royal commission and the government response; the COVID-19 Response Inquiry report of October 2024; the National Anti-Corruption Commission Act and second-reading debates; One Nation’s Senate motions and petition; Sovereign Australia’s published Sunlight Agenda (platform Part 1.9). “No royal commission proposed” means none found on the public record, not indifference. One Nation’s positions are drawn from speeches and Senate interventions rather than a published platform. This table states each party’s position, not this party’s characterisation of it.
| Issue | Sovereign Australia | Labor | Coalition | Greens | One Nation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal commissions on the table Federal |
Seven in the first term — COVID-19 response, media monopoly, lobbying and foreign influence, FOI and government secrecy, Indigenous governance, family law, and local government. Full coercive powers, no carve-outs for any government, party or industry; the first within 90 days. | No new royal commissions committed. In its previous term it delivered the Robodebt, Defence and Veteran Suicide, and Disability royal commissions, and points to those and its departmental COVID inquiry as the record. | No royal commissions committed as policy; Coalition senators have recommended one into the COVID-19 response. | No slate committed; Greens senators have endorsed a COVID-19 royal commission and a judicial inquiry into media concentration with royal-commission powers. | A sustained campaign for a COVID-19 royal commission — a Senate terms-of-reference motion that passed, and a 41,079-signature petition. |
| The COVID-19 question Federal |
Royal commission number one: the response in full — lockdowns, mandates, National Cabinet, adverse-event reporting — with no exclusion of state and territory decisions. | Delivered a departmental inquiry that reported in October 2024; it had no coercive powers and excluded unilateral state and territory actions. Government senators said it sufficed when two Senate committees recommended a full royal commission. | Committee members including the Liberal chair found an “overwhelming case” for a royal commission — examining a period in which the Coalition itself held government. | Endorsed the royal commission call: “Australians deserve a royal commission.” | The longest-running campaign in the parliament for it, across motions, inquiries and petitions. |
| Media and lobbying Federal |
Two of the seven: a royal commission into media monopoly and government influence, and one into lobbying and foreign influence — the registers, the exemptions, and who actually moves policy. | No royal commission proposed into either. | No royal commission proposed into either. | Backed a judicial inquiry into media concentration with the powers of a royal commission. | No royal commission proposed beyond COVID-19. |
| The standing machinery Federal |
Beyond commissions: the No Secrets doctrine, and the People’s Portal — spending, contracts, FOI performance and the government’s own metrics published as standing public data, so transparency does not depend on an inquiry being called. | Established the National Anti-Corruption Commission, operating from July 2023. | Supported the NACC legislation. | Backed the NACC but pushed for a lower bar on public hearings, criticising the “exceptional circumstances” threshold. | Supports anti-corruption scrutiny; no standing transparency machinery of its own proposed. |
Every Sovereign Australia cell restates the published policy — Royal Commissions — The Sunlight Agenda and Part 1.9 of the platform, with the standing machinery set out on the People’s Portal pages. One distinction the table shows plainly: other parties’ royal-commission positions are calls made from the Senate; this column is a slate committed as government policy, with a date attached to the first commission.