Page 3472 - Week 09 - Thursday, 20 August 2009
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hands of the 17 of us who occupy the important office of being a member of the Seventh Legislative Assembly for the ACT.
It is worth noting at the outset, of course, that the code of conduct for ministers being discussed today applies in addition to the obligations created by the Assembly’s code for its members. I acknowledge at the outset that my ministerial colleagues and I are properly held to even higher standards of behaviour, conduct and expectations; and none of us take lightly the significant obligations that rest on our collective shoulders. That additional expectation is an inevitable corollary of the office that we have the privilege to occupy and that none of us seeks to shrink from.
The government’s commitment to proper behaviour is the foundation of our daily approach to the challenges and privileges of office. The code is not something we publish so that we have one; it is an explicit statement of the standards to which we hold ourselves, by which we discharge our responsibilities and by which our actions should be judged. It is worth noting, however, that the obligations exist without the code and permeate not only our daily work but also other foundation documents for the government.
Proper and high standards of ministerial conduct are at the core of our parliamentary agreement with the Greens, amidst commitments in a number of policy areas. The preamble to that agreement includes recognition that the agreement was entered into with a joint determination and commitment to work together in a spirit of cooperation in the best interests of the citizens of the ACT and an undertaking to ensure an accountable and transparent government, public service and parliament that are responsive to the community.
The parliamentary agreement includes commitments:
… to improve accountability and practice in the relationship between the Executive, Parliament and the Judiciary in the ACT, and improve the involvement of non-executive Assembly Members in the development of legislation, policy and service delivery to the people of the ACT …
It also includes a commitment to pursue measures which will ensure:
… Parliamentary procedures which enforce the accountability of the Executive to Parliament and ensure effective law making …
… Higher standards of accountability, transparency and responsibility in the conduct of all public business …
… Eligibility to Public Office determined only on merit and integrity …
It also includes a range of commitments on parliamentary and other procedural reforms, all designed to provide for proper good government in the ACT.
Also importantly, the parliamentary agreement includes a commitment to the Latimer House principles. It is timely that we are returning to a discussion of proper conduct and behaviour on the same day the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure has tabled its report on these principles. We will of course respond
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