Page 3221 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
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In addition to providing the information required to be shown on the register, applications for registration must make certain declarations on the registration form. They must declare if they have ever been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 30 months or more or have been convicted, as an adult, in the last l0 years of an offence which involves dishonesty such as theft or fraud. Importantly, those wishing to be registered must declare if they do or do not act as a member of a federal, state or territory political party executive or administrative committee and must also declare that they will abide by the ACT lobbying code of conduct.
A large part of this integrity initiative involves the role of the Clerk in relation to his obligations to advise and assist MLAs on Assembly procedures and to provide administrative support for MLAs in undertaking their parliamentary and electoral duties. Therefore, any person or entity that is registered must advise the Clerk of any change to any detail appearing on the register within 10 days.
In order to maintain the accuracy of the register, a registered lobbyist is required to provide the Clerk with a quarterly return by certain dates within a calendar year. This return confirms that their registered details are accurate and update the listing of each person or entity on whose behalf lobbying has been conducted in the preceding 12 months, whether or not for reward.
The Clerk is precluded from placing on the register a lobbyist who has not provided all the required documents. The Clerk is empowered to make other decisions regarding registration, particularly if the Clerk believes that documents are false or misleading or if the Clerk considers the registered lobbyist has since become ineligible for registration. The Clerk is further empowered to remove registration if those involved have acted in contravention of the ACT lobbying code of conduct. The Clerk is required to move from the register any lobbyist who, once registered, does not provide all required change notification of confirmation documentation.
The Clerk also has a general discretion to refuse or remove registration of otherwise eligible lobbyists, particularly if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the lobbyist or person has not acted or cannot be relied upon to act in a manner consistent with general standards of ethical behaviour. Of course, natural justice occurs in these circumstances. Therefore, the Clerk is required to offer those in question a reasonable opportunity to make a submission in relation to the proposed decision and should consider that submission before making a decision.
The register should be open to the public, and therefore internet access to the register is to be available to the public free of charge. To avoid any unwarranted delay in the conduct of the business of a lobbyist, new entries or changes to existing entries timing of entries should be updated within two business days of the receipt of properly completed forms.
Members would be aware that complaints may, and most likely will, be made as we embed this initiative. Therefore, a mechanism must be in place to handle such complaints. In this context, the Clerk will handle any complaints made in relation to specific circumstances such as lobbying activities by a person who is not registered,
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