By Mark Davis Political Correspondent and Brian Robins
FEDERAL ministers will be barred from investing in the sharemarket and face a one-year cooling-off period before working for the corporate sector after they quit Parliament under a tough code of conduct announced by the Prime Minister yesterday.
Kevin Rudd also pledged a ban on political fund-raising events at his official residences, The Lodge in Canberra and Kirribilli House in Sydney, and detailed new rules to introduce greater transparency into dealings between ministers and lobbyists.
The rules, stricter than the decade-old code of conduct of the Howard government, will increase pressure on the Premier, Morris Iemma, to toughen his rules governing the activities of former state ministers after a string of controversies. The former premier Bob Carr, as well as the retired ministers Carl Scully, Craig Knowles, Michael Egan and Richard Face have all attracted criticism for their post-parliamentary employment.
The NSW Government said it would study the new federal code.
"The Premier is interested in seeing how Prime Minister Rudd's code of conduct would work and getting more details of the proposed changes," said a spokeswoman for the Premier, Alison Hill.
Mr Iemma has introduced guidelines to deal with the lobbying of ministers and other public officials, which state that retiring ministers should obtain advice from the parliamentary ethics adviser before accepting work within a year of leaving office. But this is not compulsory, and there are no sanctions.
Mr Rudd said the public was entitled to expect the highest level of behaviour from all elected representatives, especially ministers.
"They [the new rules] clearly state that ministers are required to act with integrity and fairness, be responsible for the way they exercise their powers and accept the full implications of the principle of ministerial responsibility," Mr Rudd said.
The code takes a strict line on ministerial shareholdings. Under the Howard government, ministers were not allowed to hold shares in companies operating in their area of responsibility, but could own shares in other companies. Now, ministers will not be able to own shares in any company. They will not be permitted to be directors of companies without prime ministerial approval.
They will, however, be able to have indirect investments through superannuation funds, managed funds or trusts as long as these do not influence the investment decisions of those vehicles and there is no conflict of interest with their public duties.
Ministers will also have to "encourage" family members not to invest in companies operating in their area of ministerial responsibility.
Mr Rudd's code also introduces for the first time at the federal level restrictions on the jobs ministers can take. For a year after ceasing to be a minister they will not be allowed to lobby, advocate or have business meetings with MPs, public servants or the defence forces on matters they were responsible for in their last 18 months as a minister.
The move is designed to stamp out perceptions of conflicts of interest that have arisen in recent years when ministers quit their jobs and went straight into highly paid private sector positions.
A former Liberal defence minister, Peter Reith, worked for the defence manufacturing firm Tenix immediately after leaving Parliament in 2001, while a former health minister, Michael Wooldridge, became a consultant to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners after quitting politics.
Mr Rudd's code also imposes restrictions on lobbyists representing the corporate sector or other interest groups. They will be required to provide their details to be included on a register of lobbyists before seeking access to ministers or ministerial staff.
The code says the Prime Minister will stand aside ministers where there is a prima facie case that they have breached any of its provisions.