For years now, Labor, Green, and independent MPs in Australia have been calling for a federal anti-corruption body. Even Scott Morrison’s Liberal government has agreed that Australia desperately needs such a commission, but it has thus far refused to table a bill. As the pressure mounts, the Coalition’s opposition to this proposal appears increasingly self-interested.

But it’s not hard to see why Morrison is worried — the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has derailed multiple high-profile careers. Most recently, it was that of celebrated conservative premier Gladys Berejiklian, and before that, the former Labor ministers Ian Macdonald and Eddie Obeid were investigated by the commission. Macdonald and Obeid ultimately received prison sentences after being convicted for conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. Meanwhile, senior figures from the Victoria branch of the Labor Party are facing their own corruption allegations in the state’s equivalent integrity body.

A serious political crisis has confronted Australia’s political class. The frequency and scale of corruption — affecting all major parties — is clear evidence that the problem is not one of a few bad apples. This widespread political misconduct forces us to wonder whether it is possible to clearly draw a line between corruption and business as usual.