Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to further the debate about a code of conduct for the parliament and for members of parliament. I note the draft code of conduct for members of parliament discussion paper that is the work of the House of Representatives Standing Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests. I thank the committee for the really detailed and helpful work that they did that can assist members in this debate. This is a debate that has a long history, and I note by referring to the report that, when I look at the background, I see that this was a matter that came before the parliament. I think it was first in 1975. That was a report on declarations for interest. That was a joint committee on pecuniary interests of members of parliament, and that was presented to both houses in September 1975. It recommended that a joint standing committee be established and be given the task of drafting a code, but that recommendation was not implemented. But 1975 was a rather special year in parliamentary and political history, so I can understand why some things did not get taken up at that particular time.

In 1979 there was also an inquiry into public duty and private interest. It reported in July 1979 and recommended a code of conduct be implemented for office holders, including members of parliament. A regime for the registration of interests of members, which we all subscribe to here, was implemented in 1984 following it. It was not until 1991 that the then Prime Minister proposed a working group of parliamentarians be established to develop a seminar on the standards of conduct. Then the presiding officers reconvened a working group in the 37th Parliament and looked at that issue. It was 1996 when, if I remember correctly, Prime Minister John Howard implemented some sort of code for ministers. Then in 2007 Prime Minister Rudd introduced new standards of ministerial ethics. In parliament it was 2008 in the Main Committee where there was an exchange that gave rise to consideration of this issue. Then there was a certain incident, referred to in the report, within the parliamentary precincts that caused the Speaker to refer the incident to the committee. There was then discussion about that. With the 43rd Parliament there were certain agreements around this particular issue, and in November 2010 the House referred to the committee the development of a draft code of conduct for members of parliament. I note that, when the committee considered this, they did not make a finding or express a view on the threshold issue of whether a code of conduct should be adopted or not but they did set out a series of things, and one of them was appendix 5, a draft code of conduct for members of the House of Representatives. That is what the motion of the honourable member for Lyne refers to. So they do have a draft code there.

I was involved in an issue like this when I was in the New South Wales parliament. In the New South Wales parliament there was a lot of work done before we adopted certain codes and had an ethics committee. We had an ethics adviser, and the ethics adviser I found to be very useful because it is sometimes difficult when you need guidance. Who do you go to in this place? I know that the clerks are always very helpful and totally useful, as are the speakers and chairs, but having an ethics adviser who sat a little bit away was extremely useful in that regard.

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