Page 1958 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 August 2014
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work on the detailed development of the ACT lobbyists register. I acknowledge the work and support of both the Speaker’s office and the Clerk’s office in refining this resolution to bring to the Assembly today.
I am very confident that the ACT register of lobbyists and supporting code of conduct will further build public confidence in our system of government and that it is a good thing to do. I do, however, acknowledge and endorse Mr Skehill’s advice to the standing committee:
Regulating lobbying may be an important tool … but it can never eliminate corruption in public office. Personal integrity and commitment to and compliance with meaningful codes of conduct remain key essentials in combatting public corruption.
The ACT community has been very well served by members in this place. I think this will enhance the framework available to members to ensure that the members of the ACT community continue to be well served by members that are guided by these important documents. But, at the end of the day, it is what we bring to the job. I look forward to working with members to continue to build on the public’s perception of politicians and the valuable role that we do play in the ACT community.
MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11.53): Madam Deputy Speaker, I can inform the Assembly that the opposition will be supporting the Chief Minister’s motion here today. I am not sure what happened over the winter break, but we seem to have come back into this place with a new-found sense of bipartisanship. It seems that on all of these issues that we have been discussing today there has been consensus. Even an estimates report has been presented without a dissenting report. If I reflect on last year’s report, there was a slightly different response. Maybe it is because you and I are no longer on the committee, Mr Gentleman. I do not know.
It is pleasing to see that when it is in the interests of the community, this place can work together to achieve an outcome, be it for Mr Fluffy residents, on condolence motions, estimates reports and, as we have here today, an initiative that should go some way to making sure that the integrity of this Assembly is maintained.
This is not a new topic. It has been discussed at length both here in the Assembly and around the country. It has been dealt with in committee, as the Chief Minister pointed out, and I think that it is the right time for us to introduce a lobbyist register here into the ACT Assembly. I do not think that we have the same problems that we might find in other jurisdictions. Just in the sense of volume, there are in the federal register 300 company lobbyists and 600 individuals. That simply is not the case here in the ACT.
However, I think that given what has recently happened in New South Wales with ICAC and in Victoria with the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, we simply must be open about our associations and dealings with lobbyists and other entities. It is important for the community to see that we are open. It is not the fact that I think there is any untoward lobbying in the ACT. None of that has been brought to my attention. But for the prevention of a perception and the prevention of potential future undue lobbying I think it is timely that we actually bring a register into the ACT Assembly.
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