Mr. Speaker, I practised criminal law for seven or eight years at the start of my career. Criminal lawyers see themselves as a bulwark of defence of our liberties and our criminal justice system. Within that context, they are very protective of any impingement on their ability, even in the extreme, to defend their clients from the power of the state. This is the approach at which I tend to look.
I am not willing to suggest we are taking any power away from the Ethics Commissioner. Her role is to make that interpretation of the rules. It is our responsibility to set those rules, collectively as a Parliament. The resolution before us today does that. It gives her, or any subsequent commissioner, a clearer guideline as to how to handle this kind of fact situation.
I would not go any further than that. The resolution is appropriate, as it stands, to give her that clearer guidance.
There are other disciplines here though. There is party discipline for a member who is prepared to abuse his or her role as a member of Parliament. It behooves the party leaders, the House leaders and the whips of their respective parties to consider that. In my short time here, less than eight years, I have seen a number of times where I thought there should have been that intervention. I suggest for all whips in particular, but for party leaders as well, that if they have somebody who needs to have the reins pulled in, that they do so.
The final control is the electorate themselves. If members are so blatant in abusing their powers here, they need to pay the penalty in a subsequent election.