Page 3429 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 19 September 1990
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Mr Collaery: He was a noble brute.
MR MOORE: I notice that Mr Collaery, also of Irish background, sees Oscar Wilde as somebody to be admired - as I do too, of course - for his great talent.
Mr Collaery: Hear, hear! He was pilloried by those who wanted to examine personal relationships.
MR MOORE: Exactly. Let me draw attention to the fact that it was in a speech in the Commonwealth Parliament that the ACT Government was referred to - as I have shown, quite aptly - as a picture of Dorian Gray. So for us to say, "It is okay; everybody can see that we are acting in an appropriate and ethical way" is simply not good enough.
There is a need for us to set our standards and to establish exactly what we mean by those standards. I think it is very timely that this motion is brought up. In fact, if anything, it is a little on the late side, but it was tabled some time ago. I think it is appropriate for us to support the full weight of what Ms Follett is trying to do. The only thing, as I said earlier, is that, as far as I am concerned, it is most appropriate that it go to the Administration and Procedures Committee and be dealt with there instead of creating yet another committee.
MR JENSEN (11.13): Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister today has commented that, in his opinion, the mechanism proposed by the Leader of the Opposition is not the way to go for such a small Assembly as ours. I will make further comment on that later in my speech. However, I would venture to suggest that the motion of the Leader of the Opposition that we are debating today is an unworkable idea for that very reason. Again the Opposition seems to be milking the same old issues that have been occupying it now for some weeks - adopting a holier than thou attitude to these sorts of issues. We have to be very careful, when we talk on issues like this, to remember the adage:
People in glass houses should never throw stones.
I do not disagree that we want the best possible legislature, and I would suggest that the principles - I repeat: principles - of Ms Follett's proposed draft code of ethics are basically the ones that should govern our work in the Assembly and for the ACT community. It is the way in which we apply these principles to our operations that really is the question we are considering today. So let me look at some of the more curious parts of this proposal. For example, the committee would be responsible for:
promoting the value of ethical behaviour amongst all members and to the community from which they are elected.
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