Page 115 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 May 1989
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Assembly provisions within her portfolio which would bring into place a situation whereby we will never again have a repetition of what has occurred plainly, as we have learnt on the floor of this house today, in the senior levels of the ACT Administration.
Never again, Mr Speaker, should we have an officer in a junior position inquiring into an officer in a senior position, as has occurred in relation to the matters alluded to by the Chief Minister today in the advice received from her Head of Administration. What more would point up the need for a code of ethics than the dissimulation and deviousness of the response which has been given to the Chief Minister in that matter. The Rally will of course be pursuing that, against the background that honesty in the Assembly is one thing, but also we need to have honesty among the advisers close to the Chief Minister and her Ministers.
Finally, Mr Speaker, there is a provision in the proposed statement of registrable interests - this statement is similar to the Greiner model, as we might call it - at clause 6, which asks for a list of liabilities, indicating the nature of the liability and the creditor concerned for self, spouse and dependants.
The Rally would expect that "nature of liability" would embrace the quantification of the liability, so that the actual debts owed by those of us in this chamber are clearly indicated and that the ultimate creditor, by way of direct or indirect holding of that creditorial control over us, which all of our creditors have, is fully revealed.
MR SPEAKER: I call on the Chief Minister. We were a bit quick off the mark then. I believe she would like to speak to the motion.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister) (3.13): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I will be fairly brief, but I certainly would like to speak on this matter because it was an issue on which the Australian Labor Party made a very strong election commitment. It is integral to our commitment to open and honest government, which we made throughout the election campaign and which I repeated again in the inaugural address to the Assembly on 11 May.
I indicated at that time that I would introduce as a matter of urgency a requirement for all Assembly members to declare their personal financial and business interests. I am sure that all members of this Assembly would agree that we want to set the very highest standard of personal honesty and accountability and that that will be a hallmark of this Assembly.
I fully believe also that that is what the ACT community expects of us. I think it has every right to expect and to want to have proved to it that this Assembly has the highest standards of that sort of integrity.
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