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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4614 ..

MR SPEAKER (continuing):

In further considering what matters or issues should be included in the code of conduct that it was developing, the committee particularly identified the work of the New South Wales Legislative Council in relation to a code of conduct for members as useful and considered that its code, together with the work conducted in other State parliaments in Australia, should be further investigated. The committee was also of the view that any code of conduct that it developed should be of a manageable size and should therefore be in principles rather than a list of prescribed or approved behaviour. It believed the detail of, for example, the United States Congress code of conduct would be difficult to implement in the Territory.

The committee also noted the work conducted by the Nolan Committee in the United Kingdom. Of particular interest was the development of an independent ethics commissioner who could be approached by members for an opinion on the ethics of a proposed course of action. In considering this option, the committee was particularly mindful that in a pluralist society different standards of behaviour are acceptable by some and yet unacceptable by others. Frequently, such behaviour falls into a grey area and a ruling from an ethics commissioner who should be acquainted with all the facts would be there to assuage public opinion on the matter, provided of course that the member abided by the commissioner's ruling. The committee did acknowledge that further consideration would need to be given to the position, although preliminary thinking was that it should be regarded as a consultant position - that is, an on-call position - and that it would have to be filled by someone who was of some standing in the community or had relevant expertise.

The committee recognises that the matter is an extremely complex issue but regards it as one that is crucial for members of the Assembly to finalise. The trend in all Australian parliaments is to have a readily identifiable set of rules of conduct, both to assist members in carrying out their duties and to indicate to the electorate at large what behaviour they can expect from their members. The committee therefore hopes that its successor in the next Assembly will pursue the inquiry and will complete the work of this Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure by developing a code of conduct for all members that the Fourth Assembly will adopt.

MR WHITECROSS: Pursuant to standing order 246A, I wish to inform the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Public Accounts agreed that the following statement on the committee's operations during the Third Assembly 1995-1997 be made.

Towards the close of the Second Assembly, the then chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Mr Kaine, made a statement to the Assembly which reviewed the work of the committee during the previous three years. It is appropriate that, as chair, I make a similar statement; in essence, a report on the stewardship of the committee to the current Assembly.

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