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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4613 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

I would refer them to the tennis courts in the middle of Reid, where quality outdoor lighting has been applied with full cut-off. The residents around these very well-lit tennis courts, some of them not many metres away, are hardly affected. It is a very good example of what can be done, and it can be done in Downer. I urge the Government to use this opportunity to check through the report and demonstrate that our community can benefit - in this case, parts of the community have different views - from the sorts of outcomes recommended in this report.

Debate (on motion by Mr Kaine) adjourned.

MR SPEAKER: Members, on behalf of the members of the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure and pursuant to standing order 246A, I wish to make a statement relating to the committee's inquiry into a code of conduct for Assembly members. On 26 September 1996, the Assembly passed a resolution proposed by a member of the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure which required the committee to inquire into and report on the development of a code of conduct for members of the Legislative Assembly. The Assembly asked that the committee particularly consider the issues of parliamentary and personal conduct; conflict of interest, including a member's affiliation with, or membership of, any organisation or association; gifts; the use of public office; the application of section 14 of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Commonwealth); and a complaints and investigation procedure.

Having considered briefing papers, the committee considered the matter at length at its meeting on 2 July 1997 and noted that the Auditor-General, in Report No. 2 of 1996, entitled "Taxi Plates Auction", recommended that "extracts from the draft Queensland Code of Conduct be utilised as a basis for developing guidelines for Members of the ACT Legislative Assembly". The Auditor-General continued by suggesting that a complete code of conduct would need to address a wider range of issues than those addressed in the report.

Given that the Auditor-General's report was one of the catalysts in the committee considering the development of a code of conduct for members, the committee considered that the draft Queensland code was a useful place to start addressing the issues that should be included in any code of conduct for public officials. The committee also considered that any code of conduct for members of the Legislative Assembly should reflect those standards applied to the Executive members of the Assembly by the ministerial code of conduct that the Chief Minister presented to the Assembly on 2 May 1995. It suggested that the ministerial code should be married with the code that the committee was developing.

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