One of the issues we've been dealing with is this. We have the accountable government. We have the code. We have the members' code. We have the lobbying commission rules. We have Madam Dawson's code. These are not always exactly lined up and we're being told we should harmonize them. But it seems that the question is, how do we harmonize them? Do we harmonize them to a lower standard or to a higher standard?
It was interesting when we had Madam Shepherd here and she talked about her 2010 report on the lobbying activity of Michael McSweeney and Will Stewart. She found that the lobbyists were in breach of rule 8 for putting the minister in an apparent conflict of interest. Madam Dawson didn't feel they had done anything wrong, because with having lobbyists hold a fundraiser for a minister, the minister wasn't getting the money personally; therefore there wasn't an issue.
How do we deal with differing interpretations of the same situation by the Commissioner of Lobbying and the Ethics Commissioner?