Wednesday, 27 August 2025
Committees
Parliamentary Ethics Committee
Please do not quote
Proof only
Committees
Parliamentary Ethics Committee
Membership
That Gaelle Broad, Tom McIntosh and Richard Welch be members of the Parliamentary Ethics Committee.
Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (18:28): This ethics committee has been set up to review the standards of behaviour and code of conduct for MPs. It was established in response to Operation Watts, which revealed industrial-scale branch stacking and rorting of public funds by Labor MPs – it is just worth understanding that context. Finally, after years of independent experts and the Greens calling for a parliamentary standards commissioner and ethics committee, the government was forced to introduce it. Now Labor and the Liberals have decided, deliberately, to only put Labor and coalition MPs on this committee, despite there being a huge crossbench in the Victorian Parliament. This is a highly unusual move, and it will be the only joint committee in this Parliament with no representatives from the crossbench. This is despite repeated meetings where we raised this issue with the government asking them to consider putting crossbenchers on this committee.
It would be reasonable to ask why they failed to do so. If nothing else, it gives the impression of a protection racket. This is Labor and the Liberals deciding that they and they alone will get to decide the code of conduct and standards of behaviour for MPs in this place, which is pretty galling when the impetus for this ethics committee being established was the rorting and scandals uncovered through IBAC investigations within those major parties.
A bit of history: in 2019 the Greens moved amendments to establish an independent parliamentary standards commissioner, but they were opposed by Labor and the Liberals, meaning we had to wait six years and have a series of scandals before we actually got an independent commissioner. The Greens introduced a comprehensive parliamentary integrity bill in 2022, which not only included an integrity commissioner but also proposed laws for parliamentarians’ interactions with lobbyists and required cooling-off periods for MPs moving into private consultancy roles after their political careers. But these laws were of course opposed by the major parties, and who knows how many years it will be and how many lobbying scandals will have to occur before we see reluctant action on the revolving door between ministers and big corporations.
I know that it is inconvenient but crossbenchers exist, and crossbenchers and the people they represent should have a say in the codes of conduct and standards of behaviour that MPs should live up to. Crossbenchers also face really different circumstances than those in the major parties, including the nature of our workload and our staffing, and of course crossbenchers are not immune to ethical and conduct challenges. But none of this will be factored into these decisions, because Labor has deliberately decided that crossbenchers should have no voice on this important committee.
Why don’t Labor and the Liberals want crossbenchers on this ethics committee? Well, we will never know, because crossbenchers will not get to have these conversations. As a fellow crossbencher suggested when we were discussing this matter, this is all – ironically – pretty unethical. The Greens will not be supporting this motion today.
Council divided on motion:
Ayes (22): Ryan Batchelor, John Berger, Lizzie Blandthorn, Gaelle Broad, David Davis, Moira Deeming, Enver Erdogan, Jacinta Ermacora, Michael Galea, Renee Heath, Ann-Marie Hermans, Shaun Leane, Joe McCracken, Nick McGowan, Tom McIntosh, Harriet Shing, Ingrid Stitt, Jaclyn Symes, Lee Tarlamis, Sonja Terpstra, Gayle Tierney, Sheena Watt
Noes (8): Katherine Copsey, David Ettershank, Anasina Gray-Barberio, David Limbrick, Sarah Mansfield, Rachel Payne, Aiv Puglielli, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell
Motion agreed to.