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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-08-27 Daily Xml
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Members of Parliament Code of Conduct

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (15:14): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question without notice to the Attorney-General on the topic of the parliamentary code of conduct.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.A. SIMMS: Last week, the federal government introduced a bill to establish an independent parliamentary standards commission. The bill aims to stamp out bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, and assault and discrimination in Parliament House. Included in the bill are penalties for federal MPs who fail to meet behavioural standards and new powers to remove MPs from parliamentary committees and even suspend them from the parliament.

Under standing order 455B, this place has a code of conduct that was adopted in 2021. At the time of adoption the Greens moved an amendment that would require a fine or suspension if a member of parliament was to contravene the code. The amendment was not supported by any other party in this place. My question to the Attorney-General is:

1. Is the Malinauskas government supportive of imposing penalties on members of this place who breach the code of conduct?

2. Will the state government commit to establishing an independent parliamentary standards commission and, if not, why not?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:16): I thank the honourable member for his question. I have seen reports. I haven't seen the details of what is being proposed federally. I am happy to have a look at them to see how they may apply in South Australia. As the honourable member pointed out, for some years now we have adopted a code of conduct in this place. There have been reports, particularly the review of harassment in the parliamentary workplace. I know as a result of that there is legislation that I think in different forms is currently before both chambers of the parliament in relation to looking at how the administration of the parliament works as a result of some of those reports. We are happy to have a look at it.

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