Decision to publish ethics reports should be my responsibility - Standards Czar

Standards Commissioner George Hyzler has sent a letter to the Speaker of the House arguing that decisions on when or whether to publish case reports should be the responsibility of the Commissioner of Standards, and not of the parliamentary committee.

The letter was penned this afternoon following a meeting held on Friday by the Standards committee within public, which had to be abandoned after two members appointed by the Prime Minister failed to show up.

On this issue, Hyzler insisted that a copy of the case report was not in fact leaked to the public. He pointed out that the story in question, first published by Newsbook, states an obvious conclusion, that once a case report is submitted to the Committee and not publicised, then it must contain a finding of misconduct.

However, the Standards Commissioner went on to argue that there are serious consequences to delays in publication of his reports.

As things stand, it is up to the parliamentary committee to decide as to when to publish reports by the Standards Commissioner after finding evidence of misconduct.

According to Hyzler, this was an expressed wish by the committee so as to safeguard the right to privacy of the individual being investigated.

"With all due respect, I feel that the decision whether and when to publish a report should be my responsibility and not that of the committee. Nothing in the Act gives the Committee the power to decide on publication of reports," he argued.

"By comparison, the National Audit Office and the Ombudsman - both bodies that, like the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, answer to Parliament - decide for themselves whether or when to publish their reports and they are not subject to any other authority in this regard."

Hyzler directly requested the Speaker to bring this matter up for discussion at the first opportunity, "as I would not wish to unilaterally reconsider the procedure that was adopted at the afore-mentioned meeting".