BUILDING THE PUBLIC'S TRUST IN PARLIAMENTARIANS: THE NEED FOR A REVISED CPA CODES OF CONDUCT

Buying one's own postage stamps for private mail does not commonly make headline news. Yet the Victorian Premier's gesture of meticulous separation of public trust and private life set the ethical standard in the time of the late John Cain's Victorian Government. His government had re...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Parliamentarian 2021-01, Vol.102 (3), p.280
Main Author: Coghill, Ken
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Fiduciary responsibility
Litigation
Reputations
Stamps
Trust
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Buying one's own postage stamps for private mail does not commonly make headline news. Yet the Victorian Premier's gesture of meticulous separation of public trust and private life set the ethical standard in the time of the late John Cain's Victorian Government. His government had recently come to office following accusations leveed against its predecessor of improper land deals. The stamps revelation confirmed his reputation for propriety and the standard was to apply across the public sector--civil servants, the Executive and Parliamentarians alike. As public officers, Parliamentarians have a fiduciary relationship with the citizens on whose behalf they act, and they are entrusted with responsibility to protect and uphold the common interests of the citizens. In other words, they must put the public interest above all others. In like manner, a Parliamentarian has a fiduciary duty to act on the interests of the citizens on whose behalf he or she acts. French, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, indicates that public officers have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the people affected.
ISSN:0031-2282