Parliament House should look to the Australian Public Service to help fix its cultural problems, a former senior public servant has said.
The APS and Parliamentary Services' code of conduct should be the template for a parliamentary code, ANU Professor and 2002 to 2004 Public Service Commissioner Andrew Podger said.
"The existing codes for the parliamentary service and the APS provided useful template demonstrating that in most respects, the codes would be the same," he told a public hearing on Thursday.
Should APS Commissioner protect Parliamentary staff?
He also suggested the Parliamentary Service Commissioner, now Peter Woolcott, should also have responsibility for political staff.
Mr Woolcott is also APS Commissioner.
"I do not believe however, that the parliamentary service commission should have any role in overseeing members or senators or ministers," Dr Podger said.
He said sanctions for parliamentarians should be different to parliamentary staff and public servants.
APS values as set out in the Public Service Act 1999 are impartial, committed to service, accountable, respectful and ethical.
Dr Podger said it wouldn't be appropriate for each type of staff to have the same values.
For example, parliamentary staff would not be required to be apolitical.
"Similarly, what papers should be held confidential and our public servant confidentiality is around working with ministers. It's a different sense of confidentiality than you would expect in other places," he said.
"The values and the codes of conduct ... can be very, very much a common template. But it is useful to clarify where there are differences."
Dr Podger said the Commissioner's role was to promote tangible things that reflect the values and code of conduct.
"A lot of work went into ensuring that the values were not seen as just rhetorical, but were seen as issues of substance that need to be thought carefully," Dr Podger said.
Public Service Act should be strengthened: Podger
He told The Canberra Times while he believed the Public Service Act "is pretty good", one provision should be strengthened.
The code should state that harassment, violence and discrimination would not be tolerated or ignored. He said this came from Canadian legislation.
"[It] does go further than the words we currently have in the legislation for the public service or the parliamentary service," Dr Podger said.
"I think in the light of things that have been revealed by Jenkins, there is a case to look again at that one provision about bullying, harassment and respect, that could be made a tighter provision."
Liberal MP Nola Marino called the proposed line "strong wording".
Pollies' personal lives are public: advocates
The Public Service Act does state employees must uphold APS values and employment principles "at all times".
Advocacy group Fair Agenda, also presenting at the hearing, said a parliamentary code of conduct should also apply to parliamentarians personal lives.
"For better or for worse, parliamentarians are in the public eye and their personal lives need to be considered," campaign manager Alyssa Shaw said.
Ms Shaw said as an example a minister accused of sexual assault in their private life.
Any independent commissioner or panel should be able to investigate such an incident.
Without referring to any specifics, Podger told The Canberra Times the code had to be careful not to go "too far into private lives".
"In practice, there is a distinction between your private life and your public life and they can interact," he said.
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