Spouse travel for territory politicians is set to be banned altogether and gifts rules look set to be overhauled in the wake of Speaker Vicki Dunne's decision to take her husband on a trip to Malaysia in April.
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The developments came as the Liberals fuelled the debate on a new front on Thursday, accusing minister Shane Rattenbury of wrongly using taxpayers' money to campaign for the Greens in Hobart in the lead-up to the 2013 election.
Alistair Coe told the Assembly that Mr Rattenbury had charged taxpayers $1457.76 for the two-day visit to Hobart to speak at a forum on light rail.
"What benefit did the people of Canberra get when the minister who was not responsible for light rail goes to a federal Greens candidate forum during an election campaign to spruik light rail? I would argue there is absolutely no benefit whatever to the ACT taxpayer."
Mr Coe said Mrs Dunne was to be commended for ordering reviews into a planned delegation to Taiwan this month and into the travel and gifts paid for by third parties to settle ambiguities in the rules. He accused Mr Rattenbury of trying to make political mileage.
Mr Rattenbury said the event included Labor and independent politicians as well as community groups. He said there was no ACT minister responsible for light rail at the time.
The event was organised by a federal Greens candidate.
"I've indicated in all my media this week that I think it's is a legitimate and important thing for politicians to travel to share skills, discuss policy and build networks across jurisdictions," he said.
"This is entirely different to the behaviour that Mrs Dunne has been defending this week, which was about taking her husband with her on a work trip to Malaysia."
The debate was sparked with news this that Mrs Dunne took her husband to a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting in Sabah, Malaysia in April and May, despite last year's ban on spouse travel.
She argued the trip was within the rules because it was paid for by the association, which encourages spouse travel and pays for their airfares. She has advice backing her view from the Assembly's ethics and integrity adviser, Stephen Skehill, but Clerk Tom Duncan disagreed, insisting the ban on spouse travel extends to association meetings. Both men warned her about the likelihood of negative publicity if she decided to go ahead.
On Friday, Assembly members in the ACT branch of the association will vote on a motion put by Labor's Chris Bourke which would ban them from taking spouses on association travel. The Liberals will support the move.
Separately, Mr Skehill begins two reviews – one into whether Mrs Dunne, Dr Bourke and Liberal Andrew Wall should travel this month to Taiwan on a Taipei-funded trip, and a second into the wider issue of accepting gifts from third parties, including businesses, organisations and governments.
Mrs Dunne characterises the Taiwan trip as a "gift" from the island's government. There are no restrictions on accepting gifts, other than the requirement that they must be declared if valued at more than $100 or $250 for "official" gifts.
Mr Skehill said the issue was complex and left much room for judgment. He was yet to decide how to approach his review of gifts, but would look broadly at issues such their source.
As to his advice on Mrs Dunne's husband's trip to Malaysia, Mr Skehill said he was "very comfortable" with the advice he had given her that her trip did not contravene the code of conduct, nor the law.
"I don't think that the existing rules need clarification to make them more clearly state what they state, whether the rules should be changed is a matter for the politicians," he said.
"I didn't believe there was a grey area I believe that she was entitled, as I said in the advice, to have herself and her husband travel economy class at CPA expense, as opposed to her alone travelling business class at CPA expense.
"Whether it was a good thing to do in terms of exercising that entitlement is a matter of judgement and that's part of the debate that's going on the federal parliament at the moment."
