BENCHMARKING


BENCHMARKS FOR CODES OF CONDUCT


Pioneering research shows that parliamentarians themselves recognise that rigorous codes of conduct and ethics make their institutions stronger


Hon. Dr Ken Coghill, PhD is an Associate Professor of Management at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He was a former Member of the Victoria Legislative Assembly, and also served as Parliamentary Secretary of the Cabinet and Speaker.


Dr Abel Kinyondo is a Senior Researcher at REPOA. He has also headed the Department of Geography and Economics at the University of Dar Es Salaam (DUCE) and previously worked for the United Nations Development Program in Tanzania.


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of the project. A large majority responded; of those, about two- thirds reported that they have some form of code to guide the behaviour of the Members of their House.


Hon. Dr Ken Coghill, PhD


A code for Members is the mark of modern Commonwealth parliaments, according to research which is leading to benchmarks to guide parliaments in the design or revision of codes of conduct. This research and development project began in mid-2014, funded by the CPA and conducted by a research team based at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia). The CPA’s branches include around 200 houses of parliament (i.e. some are bicameral) which were surveyed as the first stage


38 | The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue One


Parliamentarians and Clerks from a large cross-section of houses were then interviewed at the 60th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (Yaoundé, Cameroon, October 2014) to get a deeper understanding of how codes operate in practice. This led to draft benchmarks which were published on Commonwealth Connects and circulated in February for comment by parliamentarians, clerks and other experts, leading to a workshop in April. This will be followed by publication of Recommended Benchmarks for Codes of Conduct.


Key research findings The first key observation is that a code forms an important part of the parliamentary integrity system (discussed in


Dr Abel Kinyondo


“Conduct, Ethics and Codes” The Parliamentarian, Issue One, 2014)


A second key finding was the strong view from parliaments with more rigorous codes that their parliaments were better as a result. The reasons for that seem to go to the very heart of democracy. Parliament is a public office and members of any parliament are public officers. As such, parliamentarians have a fiduciary relationship with the people of the nation, province, state, or territory served by


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