Report

Senator Andreychuk, Vice-Chair of the Canadian Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association participated in a joint CPA/Monash University workshop on ‘Benchmarks for Codes of Conduct for Parliamentarians’, hosted by the Victoria CPA Branch in Melbourne, Australia, from 8 to 10 April, 2015.

The other participants are listed in Appendix A of this report.

Background to the workshop

The CPA is committed to supporting Parliamentarians and parliamentary staff to identify benchmarks of good governance and the implementation of the good values of the Commonwealth including enhancing public trust in parliament and its members; a fundamental aspect of good governance and an open society.

In 2004, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) issued Recommendations for Transparent Governance and then in 2006, Recommended Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures. Since these recommendations were made, many other parliamentary associations have adopted their own sets of benchmarks, drawing heavily on the CPA Benchmarks. 

To evaluate and to explore opportunities to refine the CPA Benchmarks to reflect developments since 2006, the CPA convened a Study Group in 2013, in partnership with the National Democratic Institute (NDI), bringing together Parliamentarians and representatives of the Commonwealth PMO community. As part of the agreed newly refined benchmarks, the group included information on Benchmarks for democratic and parliamentary behaviour. The Study Group recommended that the CPA Secretariat work with its Members and partners to develop a body of work on Democratic Parliamentary Behaviour.

During the 60^th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference a workshop was held on ‘Parliamentarians and public trust: do codes of conduct help?’. One of the agreed recommendations from the workshop was to prepare a set of benchmarks to guide Parliaments in the development of codes of conduct. Also at the 60^th CPC, a series of interviews were conducted on behalf of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association by Associate Professor Hon Dr Ken Coghill of Monash University and Dr Abel Kinyondo of the University of Dar Es Salaam in relation to parliamentary codes of conduct applying to members of parliament across the Commonwealth. The interviews and research into parliamentary codes have contributed to a set of draft proposals for recommended benchmarks for Codes of Conduct for Members of Parliament. 

The objectives of the workshop in April were as follows:

·Identify good practice in Codes of Conduct and their implementation across Commonwealth Parliaments;

·Consider draft recommendations for the establishment of an agreed set of benchmarks for codes of conduct;

·Examine methods of increasing accountability, transparency and public trust through the use of benchmarks for codes of conduct; and

·Discuss possible ethical competency activities that could be provided by CPA to its membership.

Outcome of the workshop

The outcome of the workshop will hope to see that participating members have a better understanding of the issues surrounding the importance of an effective parliamentary code of conduct and to agree on a set of benchmarks for such codes. This document will be shared with all Branches of the CPA.

Senator Andreychuk took the opportunity to inform the conference about Canada’s legislative and rules frameworks governing the conflict of interest and other behaviors of parliamentarians. In particular, she described her experience as Chair of the Standing Committee on Conflict of Interest for Senators, which recently spearheaded the adoption of significant changes to the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code for Senators.

The result of the conference was the adoption of ‘Recommended Benchmarks for Codes of Conduct Applying to Members of Parliament’ document, attached as Appendix B. 

Respectfully submitted,

Mr. Joe Preston M.P.

Chair

Canadian Branch, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association