Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Privileges committees

Appointment of a Parliamentary Integrity Adviser for the 60th Parliament

Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (10:13): I rise to speak on the Appointment of a Parliamentary Integrity Adviser for the 60th Parliament, a joint committee report which was published in June 2023. Of course this was to appoint Professor Charles Sampford as parliamentary integrity adviser, and the Speaker has recently advised that he will be in Parliament this week to meet members and discuss with members their important obligations.

Professor Sampford has been appointed for a period that ends four months after the next election. To give you a little bit of background of some of the credentials that Professor Sampford brings, he has bachelor of arts and bachelor of law degrees, each with first-class honours from no less than Melbourne University, and a doctorate of philosophy from Oxford University. He has been a board member of the Accountability Round Table since 2008, and he has held the position of president of the International Institute for Public Ethics. He is a person who comes with a great deal of background and information and will be a very supportive person to those members of Parliament to assist them in their role.

The integrity adviser has a number of important roles to play: advising members of Parliament, educating members of Parliament, providing training and also a reporting function – accountability back to this Parliament. All of these are really important roles. Just to go a little bit into each of them, the integrity adviser provides advice to members of Parliament on ethical issues and integrity matters in their role in Parliament. Unfortunately for all of us here, he does not provide us free legal advice, but that might be something that is considered at a later point in time. Education and training are a fundamentally important part of this role to make sure that we are up to speed with those matters that we need to be aware of, including the provision of written resources, in-person training and training online. The reporting function – his accountability to the Parliament that employs him – is to report annually on the advice that he has given, the training that he has delivered, the time spent on the integrity adviser duties and any other matters that he considers appropriate.

Of course, there has been a recent review of the 59th Parliament. The review is called Review of the Ongoing Resolution on the Parliamentary Integrity Adviser, and it makes a number of recommendations, which have been included in this new role. Particularly it goes to the integrity adviser providing some advice around claiming of parliamentary allowances and conflicts of interest and general advice to members of Parliament on the code of conduct in part 3 of the Members of Parliament (Standards) Act 1978. There is also strong emphasis on being available for members of Parliament, and that is making sure that he is available at least one sitting day across six separate sitting weeks. I guess the role of the integrity adviser is not to catch people doing the wrong thing but to inform them of how they can do the right thing, and that is an incredibly important role that the integrity adviser plays.

I would like to thank the committee for undertaking this work and recommending this appointment. That includes the chair, the Honourable Harriet Shing from Eastern Victoria and obviously in the other place; the Honourable Lily D’Ambrosio, member for Mill Park; Dr Matthew Bach, a member for North-Eastern Metropolitan Region; the Honourable Lizzie Blandthorn, a member for Western Metropolitan; Jeff Bourman, a member for Eastern Victoria Region – this is a very large committee doing an important job, so I will keep going with that – Georgie Crozier from Southern Metropolitan Region; the Honourable Melissa Horne, member for Williamstown; the Honourable Wendy Lovell, a member for Northern Victoria; James Newbury, you get a mention as well, member for Brighton; the Honourable Danny Pearson, member for Essendon; the Honourable Mary-Anne Thomas, member for Macedon; the Honourable Gayle Tierney, a member for Western Victoria; the Honourable Peter Walsh, member for Murray Plains; and the Honourable Kim Wells, member for Rowville.

I would also like to, and I know the member for Brighton would like to, shout out appreciation to the clerks who provided support in their roles: Richard Willis, the Assistant Clerk Committees for the Legislative Council; Vaughn Koops, the Deputy Clerk for the Legislative Assembly; and Vivienne Bannan, the bills and research officer of the Legislative Council. I thoroughly recommend that all members of this place take the time to read this important report and also engage the integrity adviser on how they can best perform their role in the best way possible.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Just before I call the member for Lowan, I remind members to use correct titles when referring to members of this house.