Liberal MLA for Murrumbidgee Jeremy Hanson has been found to have breached the Members Code of Conduct by failing to act with due diligence and has been asked to apologise in writing to the Speaker.
Commissioner for Standards Ken Crispin investigated a complaint from another Murrumbidgee MLA, Dr Marisa Paterson, alleging that Mr Hanson and fellow MLA Ed Cocks had circulated misleading material relating to a petition as part of their mobile office program.
Dr Paterson claimed that a flyer/leaflet encouraging members of the public to go to a website and sign an online petition to upgrade parking facilities at the Torrens shops used her name without permission and was misleading.
She alleged that the online petition, along with 11 others, was a data harvesting exercise for campaign purposes and may have breached Territory privacy principles.
The website name murrumbidgeemlas.com.au was also considered misleading, given it only served the two Liberal MLAs in that electorate.
While the Commissioner cleared the MLAs of Dr Paterson’s claims, he found Mr Hanson had not been careful enough in accepting advice from a staffer that the Electoral Commissioner had approved the activities of the mobile office program.
Mr Hanson had told Mr Crispin: “We sought advice from the Electoral Commissioner for the ACT on this program. We were advised that such activities, including mailouts, follow-ups and staff involvement, were legitimate MLA activities and would not be considered electioneering or campaigning by the Electoral Commission.”
But Electoral Commissioner Damian Cantwell told Mr Crispin that the advice given by his office was confined to opinions on electoral matters.
“My views on whether mobile office arrangements and activities, including mailouts, follow-ups and staff involvement constitute legitimate MLA activities, have neither been sought nor provided,” Mr Cantwell said.
Mr Hanson and Mr Cocks explained through solicitors that the Electoral Commissioner’s advice was initially sought by, and given to, Mr Cocks’ office and then shared verbally between two staffers.
Mr Hanson told Mr Crispin that he relied on the verbal interpretation of staffer William Hagan’s understanding of the advice when preparing his response of 18 September 2024.
The two MLAs provided statutory declarations from the two staffers to support this.
Mr Crispin said this was a very flimsy basis for such an assertion but was not unsympathetic to Mr Hanson’s explanation, noting that he had known the staffer for 16 years and may have been accustomed to relying upon his advice.
“Nonetheless, in my opinion, he clearly failed to exercise due diligence in simply adopting Mr Hagan’s statement without obtaining a copy of the written advice or otherwise checking the accuracy of it,” he found.
“The assertion was made in the course of responding to a complaint of misconduct and he had a duty to ensure that the Standing Committee was not misled.
“Furthermore, the assertion involved attributing to the Electoral Commissioner advice that would have been outside of his area of responsibility and expertise and hence inappropriate for him to have provided.”
Mr Hanson’s solicitor said his client accepted responsibility for the error and apologised.
The MLAs had also agreed to change the name of the website in question.
In a statement, Mr Hanson welcomed the Commissioner’s dismissal of the Labor MLA’s complaint, which he believed was politically motivated.
“While providing some background information to the Commissioner, my staff provided me with incorrect written advice that I then passed on to him. I have apologised for this inadvertent error from my office,” he said.
Mr Crispin provided his findings to the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure Committee, which made three recommendations.
The Committee said Mr Hanson should be requested to apologise in writing, through the Speaker to the Assembly, for his actions.
Mr Hanson and Mr Cocks should change the name of the website murrumbidgeemlas.com.au so as to avoid confusion with the three other Murrumbidgee MLAs not covered by the website.
The Committee also recommended that the Committee on Administration and Procedure of the 11th Assembly investigate the use of Members’ private websites and other means to promote e-petitions that would be deemed out-of-order.
The Committee members were Speaker Joy Burch, Chair Nicole Lawder (Liberal), Deputy Chair Andrew Braddock (Greens) and Suzanne Orr (Labor)