Page 3420 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 19 September 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
As I have said, there is no precedent in Australian parliamentary practice for such a committee. We might need one to look into Mr Trotsky over here, but I cannot imagine who else we might want to look into. I submit that the matter can be dealt with very quickly and disposed of this morning in a very practical way, and one of the members of the Government will propose that course of action later.
Mr Berry: On a point of order: To whom was the Chief Minister referring?
MR SPEAKER: Order! I do not believe that is a point of order, Mr Berry.
MR WOOD (10.47): The Chief Minister has just maintained that the leader of the Labor Party has not presented a sound case for the proposal she has presented. I think the Chief Minister, in making that statement, has not followed the events of this chamber, what has happened through the media and what is widely known in the community. Without wanting to, this chamber has presented a very strong case for this proposed code of ethics. It is necessary. There is a perception - no, there is more than that; there is a strong belief in the community that we need such a code of ethics. I might add that this is not unique to the ACT. It is common across Australia. But I think that, as we members of a new Assembly have to battle very hard and under some difficulty to establish ourselves, such a code of ethics is much needed.
The individual standards or the attitudes to life of our members, as I guess in all parliaments, are variable; but we do need a prescribed set of rules, not just for the members of the parliament but particularly for those most significant members, the members of the Government, the Cabinet members.
As the Labor leader pointed out, she set the standard when she proposed the declaration of pecuniary interests - one of the very first actions of her Government, and an action that was agreed to by all in this chamber. More than that, the Labor leader and, I believe, all the members of the Labor Party have set the standard on behaviour. But I do not want to get down to a discussion of individual members because this is not just a matter of individuals; it is also a matter of parties and how parties behave - how parties remain consistent to their stated beliefs, among a range of other factors. It is also a matter of government and of opposition.
I have said before in this chamber that members of parliament are not expected to be paragons of virtue but we are expected, among other things, to accept the conditions or the standards that we set through our legislation and through our oversight of the laws of this Territory. We must observe those standards. One of the factors in this motion that pleases me considerably is that this process will develop. We are not presenting just a code of ethics
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .