Mps And Slippery Slopes

The Age

Saturday June 23, 2007

Royce Millar and Josh Gordon - Royce Millar is city editor. Josh Gordon is state economics reporter

Snouts in the trough or a legitimate part of the job? The "perks on the piste" affair has left some asking whether Victoria needs an independent commission to monitor politicians' behaviour.

WHEN Sherryl Garbutt parties, she does so in style. And so it was on the opening weekend of the 2000 ski season. Spirits were high at Mount Buller; snow had fallen and the resort was looking forward to a cracker of a season.

It's a fair bet that the good cheer quickly infected then environment minister Garbutt and her entourage of colleagues and advisers, who assembled on the Saturday night to celebrate snow. The group was housed in luxury and wined and dined courtesy of public money via the Mount Buller resort management board.

Documents obtained under freedom-of-information laws and seen by The Age suggest quite a night. The minister was put up in the board's luxury Black Forest Lodge. Her staff overflowed into the privately run Breathtaker All Suite Hotel & Alpine Spa Retreat - the premier hotel on Mount Buller.

Wine flowed freely (the tab for drinks came to $700), and the party clocked up $2641 on some guests' accommodation and a "degustation dinner" in the retreat's fine-dining Signature Restaurant. It is doubtful that anyone present would have imagined that their dinner would be the subject of a newspaper report seven years on.

On the one hand the Garbutt feast could be dismissed as small beer - well, classy wine, actually. In the wider scheme of things it's not a lot of money and, after all, MPs work hard, have little time off for family and friends and probably deserve a night of fun from time to time.

Writing about such evenings can be brushed aside as media nitpicking. Often hypocritical nitpicking at that. If any group of people is renowned for fondness of junkets and freebies, it's the media.

On the other hand, the Garbutt dinner can also be read as a fundamental abuse of public money and ministerial power - a classic case of snouts in the trough and pollies on the gravy train.

Coming less than a year into the Bracks Government's first term of office, the weekend might also be viewed as an early sign of an overdeveloped sense of entitlement and a cavalier attitude to the public purse.

Revelations in The Age of ministers and their families indulging in freebies have raised questions about the white, black and grey of public life and the need to mark clearer boundaries between them.

In particular, Deputy Premier John Thwaites has been in the limelight. Under pressure from The Age and the Opposition, Thwaites has reluctantly acknowledged about six stays at Falls Creek and visits to other alpine resorts for up to three days at a time, courtesy of boards of management he appoints.

He has also conceded one or two stays at Wilsons Promontory each year. Often these trips are with his family. It has also become clear that Thwaites has asked for accommodation on some occasions, not just responded to invitations.

Although he has done his best to muddy the issue, Thwaites' defence appears to have two prongs. First, he has argued that the accommodation was in government buildings so there was no cost to the public. Second, he says "I am always on the job" and part of that job is to spend time at Victoria's ski fields and national parks, with and without his family, for periods of up to one week.

The first line of defence has been cast into doubt by news that Thwaites has also accepted ski accommodation in the luxury Astra Lodge, when the board's own Horseshoe Creek VIP apartment was occupied. The accommodation was provided free of charge by the board, which owes its existence to Victorian taxpayers and users of the national park.

In what is now dubbed the "perks on the piste" affair, a picture is gradually emerging of the extent to which Thwaites has been "on the job" at the snow, Wilsons Promontory and other sought after parts of the state.

As Environment Minister Thwaites is ultimately responsible for the management of the snowfields, the Prom, national parks, state forests and much of the Victorian coast. He points out, therefore, it is not only understandable that he spends time in these places, it would be remiss of him if he did not. "As minister I would be criticised if I did not. I would expect any minister would do that. My job is about ensuring that we have the best possible parks in this country."

If a minister is travelling to Mount Hotham or Tidal River on official duties, it certainly seems reasonable that they stay overnight. That is the white area. Ministers should not be out of pocket for their work.

Things turn to grey, however, when an overnighter turns into three days or a week, when the stay includes freebies such as food, alcohol and chairlift tickets, even when there are no official duties to attend to.

Peter Loney is a former Labor deputy speaker in the Bracks Government and is now an adjunct professor at La Trobe University's governance and accountability Research Centre. He says that once a minister starts seeking out accommodation, things start tending towards a darker shade of grey.

More generally, he fears parliamentary standards for disclosure have slipped. "You have had a shift over time in some of these things, and maybe it is time that the Parliament should have a look at itself."

Grey also applies when ministers take family or friends. One former Cain minister this week said that this was simply unacceptable (one minister recalled John Cain even refusing the offer of a free ice-cream from a city eatery). Many commentators argue that standards have slipped since the Cain years.

Sources at the promontory also said this week that when Thwaites stayed at the three-bedroom Parks Victoria-owned Northey Lodge, he did so for up to a week at a time, including this Easter. That has to be grey also.

Don't expect moral outrage, however, from rangers and managers who look after these far-flung getaways. Understandably, they are keen to host ministers and other MPs and happy to pay public money for the privilege of getting a word in MPs' ears to argue their respective cases for more resources and improvements.

It is interesting to note, however, the locations at which ministers prefer to be "on the job". While Thwaites seems to have lots of official duties at Falls Creek, he has found almost no reason to visit smaller and less well-equipped resorts, such as Mount Baw Baw.

Baw Baw chief executive Leona Turra says she wishes more ministers would come. But they rarely show, and when they do, it's even more rare they stay. "Mr Thwaites came last year for a day and left, and Brumby the same," she says.

On at least two occasions - over Christmas 2004-05 and again in 2005-06 Thwaites, then acting premier, stayed for two or three nights in historic accommodation at Cape Otway Lighthouse, where weekly rates at Christmas are more than $2000.

But up at the Lower Glenelg national park the managers of one-room bunk-style cabins owned by Parks Victoria, can't recall a ministerial overnighter, ever. Nor can the ranger at the Nioka Bush Camp at the Plenty Gorge, which also boasts a bunkhouse cabin. "It would be too rough for them," says a frank park ranger.

The revelations have also raised questions about Premier Steve Bracks' judgement in matters of ministerial accountability. Where Thwaites has declared none of the hospitality received on his many visits to the snow, Tourism Minister Tim Holding did record his stay at Mount Hotham in the 2006 register. Quizzed about the discrepancy in approaches, Bracks said it was up to the ministers to decide what they should and shouldn't declare.

BUT the man widely regarded as Australia's leading commentator on ethics in Government, says ministers should not be left to make such calls. "They (the ministers) are the last ones that should be making the decision" about what are acceptable levels of freebies, and what should be declared, says Noel Preston, adjunct professor at Griffith University's ethics, law, justice and governance centre.

He says all governments need an independent body to guide and advise on such matters and has called for Victoria to consider establishing such a body based on Queensland's Integrity Commission.

Not everyone agrees. Greg Craven, professor of government and constitutional law at Curtin University and Crown Counsel to the Kennett government, denies standards for politicians have slipped.

"In fact what is happening now is a little bit like child abuse; it's not the case that people are worse, it's the case that detection mechanisms and standards are higher," Craven says.

But Peter Loney argues that Victoria should go down the same path as Canada, which has appointed a conflict-of-interest commissioner, an independent umpire who MPs can turn to for advice on declaration.

"It is always in the best interest of a member to err on the side of disclosure in these matters," Loney says. "It brings fewer problems then non-disclosure."

A widely respected commentator on government accountability Monash University's Professor Colleen Lewis says it is common for hard-working government and corporate leaders to begin to think they are underpaid for their efforts and that they deserve a few extras. "And that sort of mentality has got people into trouble in both the public and private sectors."

Lewis says clear rules are needed to remind MPs of what is acceptable, and what isn't. Lewis supports an independent commission to monitor MPs' behaviour along the lines of those established in NSW and Queensland. "They (MPs) do work incredibly hard. They do work long hours. But (perks) can become the norm, and it's something you have to be very careful of."

Royce Millar is city editor. Josh Gordon is state economics reporter.

© 2007 The Age

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