The reason the Accountability Act proposes that we have qualified judges serve in this role is that this role requires a commissioner to make findings, to make unenforceable, but still very important rulings. We need someone in that position who has experience with judicial procedure.
The Ethics Commissioner does not exist to just tell us what's right and wrong in the world; the Ethics Commissioner is not just a moral guru who wakes up in the morning and helps guide us through the moral challenges of the day. Each and every one of us has the capacity to do that on our own. The Ethics Commissioner's job is to read the conflict of interest code and apply it verbatim. That is the role, to interpret the rules and guidelines outlined in the conflict of interest code, which will now be part of statutory law.
The best qualification for the interpretation of statutory law is that of a judge. That's what judges do: they interpret law. We need someone with judicial experience and a judicial background to interpret what will now be statutory law. In the past maybe it wasn't necessary, because we were dealing merely with a code. In the future we'll be dealing with statutory law, and it is the view of this side that it should be a judge who interprets statutory law, someone who is qualified for doing that. That is why we have specified certain qualifications for that role.
I'd invite any of our technical experts to share any of their thoughts on the point.