Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As Senator Ronaldson says, they are right. The other matter that needs to be cleaned up is the status of the question-and-answer section on the PM&C website—that is, whether or not this constitutes part of the code. There is an out here for lobbyists, who could say, ‘Well, we’ve satisfied the code itself,’ even if their actions were contrary to the Q&A section of the PM&C website. So its status needs to be clarified. Finally, opposition senators are of the view:

That the Code should not be expanded to apply to non-executive members of either House of Parliament nor to non-ministerial MOPS staff.

There should be nothing which stands in the way of the capacity of constituents and the public to communicate with their elected representatives. That expansion of the code is something which we do not support.

It is no surprise that the sole government recommendation in this report is for yet another review. We probably do not have too much trouble with that but we do recommend that our amendments to the code be accepted so that this can be a properly functioning and effective code.

Question agreed to.