Page 3442 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 19 September 1990
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I believe that itself would be unethical. Clearly our Government is supportive of these issues, as indeed I am as Attorney-General, and I think members would be well aware that we have been looking at the code of conduct for local government. We have also been getting interpretations of section 14 of the self-government Act which itself sets a very high penalty for members who, among other things, take or agree to take directly or indirectly any remuneration, allowance, honorarium, reward and so on.
We are establishing an independent committee against corruption and I have said publicly that one of the strong aspects of that is that that committee can examine our behaviour as Ministers - particularly our behaviour as Ministers - and, I would suggest, the behaviour of all members, who are approached constantly by the public and by business for concessions. I think we are establishing at a prudent pace the machinery that should go in this area, but I do not support the establishment of a committee as framed by the Leader of the Opposition.
I support the motion proposed by my colleague Mr Humphries. One ground, but not the overreaching ground, for my believing the Administration and Procedures Committee should tackle this issue at this stage is that the establishment of another separate committee at a time when this Assembly is fully stretched would place further work on the backbenchers. Indeed, on my reckoning, you would need another committee secretary which would cost somewhere between $40,000 and $50,000, on my assessment. I could be corrected on that by my colleague the Chief Minister. But it does appear to me that there are the organisational, workload and financial aspects. So we should think about it carefully.
Finally, just for once I agree with most of what Michael Moore said. I liked, indeed, his traverse from Highgate Prison and I supported very much his sentiments.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (11.59): Mr Speaker, I will close the debate and I will be relatively brief in my comments. There are a few things I would like to say in response to what other members have said about this issue, and I do thank them all for their contributions. I think it is abundantly clear from what a number of members have said that Mr Berry is quite right when he says this Assembly does have an odour. Mr Humphries referred to the fact that he believes this is the only parliament in Australia that does not have a requirement that bankruptcy would prohibit a member from taking a seat.
Mr Kaine, I think by way of an interjection, referred to the fact that there are defamation writs flowing backwards and forwards between members of this Assembly, and Mr Berry himself referred to the rate of criminal convictions in this Assembly. I think that if you think it does not have an odour you are kidding yourselves. It does. The motion that I am putting forward is an attempt to make the
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