A former Liberal leader has been called on to apologise after he was found to have breached the members' code of conduct that requires politicians to "act with integrity, honesty and diligence".
Jeremy Hanson was found by the Legislative Assembly's powerful standing committee on administration and procedure to have breached the code of conduct by failing to exercise due diligence.
Mr Hanson accepted the findings, apologised and welcomed the dismissal of a "politically motivated" complaint levelled at him and Ed Cocks alleging misuse of petitions.
"While providing some background information to the [commissioner for standards], my staff provided me with incorrect written advice that I then passed on to him," Mr Hanson said in a statement.
"I have apologised for this inadvertent error from my office."
Mr Hanson and Mr Cocks will also change the address of a joint website found to be "potentially misleading".
The committee agreed with the findings made by the Legislative Assembly's commissioner for standards, Ken Crispin KC, after an investigation prompted by a complaint from a Labor MLA.
While the complaint was dismissed, part of Mr Hanson's response to the investigation was found to be a breach of the code of conduct.
Mr Hanson had told Dr Crispin advice had been sought on a program of mobile offices, mail outs, follow ups and staff involvement from the ACT Electoral Commissioner.
Mr Hanson said his office had been told these were legitimate activities for an MLA and not electioneering.
But Dr Crispin found the statement was not true.
Mr Hanson and Mr Cocks, another Liberal MLA in Murrumbidgee, sought advice from Elections ACT on a joint mobile office schedule invitation.
"With due respect to Mr Hanson, I was unable to imagine any way in which he could have interpreted advice about statements in an invitation flyer as endorsing activities, such as mail outs, follow ups and staff involvement," Dr Crispin wrote.
Dr Crispin noted solicitors for Mr Hanson had conceded the assertion was incorrect and was attributable to error, as Mr Hanson had relied on "verbal interpretation of his staff member's understanding of the advice".
The commissioner for standards accepted Mr Hanson may have been misled and acted without dishonest intent, but the reliance on a staff member's interpretation of his memory of another staffer's statement was a "very flimsy basis for such and [sic] assertion".
Solicitors for Mr Hanson said the MLA accepted he bore responsibility for this error.
"He can only apologise profusely and say that it is an incredibly busy period at present, in the lead up to the impending election," the solicitors response quoted in Dr Crispin's report said.
Dr Crispin said members were not required to effectively fact check every statement they pass on to others, but they must take reasonable steps to ensure that potentially important statements are true.
Mr Hanson "clearly failed to exercise due diligence in simply adopting [his staffer's] statement without obtaining a copy of the written advice or otherwise checking the accuracy of it", Dr Crispin said.
"The assertion was made in the course of responding to a complaint of misconduct and he had a duty to ensure that the standing committee was not misled."
Labor's Marisa Paterson complained about Mr Hanson and Mr Cocks to the Assembly's commissioner for standards on September 4, alleging the pair were responsible for an anonymous letter encouraging residents to sign a petition about parking at Torrens shops.
The letter, which also referred to Dr Paterson, urged people to sign an online petition hosted on a website at murrumbidgeemlas.com.au.
Dr Paterson's complaint alleged the letter and the website were misleading and that Mr Cocks and Mr Hanson had been "harvesting" email addresses.
Both Mr Cocks and Mr Hanson denied being involved in producing or distributing the letter.
The commissioner for standards, Ken Crispin KC, said he was unable to find Mr Cocks or Mr Hanson were involved in writing or distributing the letter.
But Dr Crispin found the name of the website was "potentially misleading" but had not been "formulated with any dishonest intent".
The standing committee recommended the name be changed, which the Liberals said would happen at the earliest opportunity.
The standards commissioner said there was also no actual evidence either Mr Hanson or Mr Cocks had engaged in data harvesting.
Both Mr Hanson and Mr Cocks tabled a series of out-of-order petitions in the Legislative Assembly on September 4, during the last sitting week of the term.
Dr Paterson's complaint said she believed Mr Cocks and Mr Hanson had tabled the petitions after receiving significant pressure from the public calling them out over data harvesting.
Mr Hanson told Dr Crispin the suggestion was "patent nonsense".
Solicitors for Mr Hanson and Mr Cocks told Dr Crispin the pair wanted the petitions to remain "live" for as long as possible while they were talking to constituents after a final round of mobile offices were held in September.
Dr Crispin noted one out-of-order petition tabled by Mr Hanson was about the decriminalisation of drug possession, Mr Hanson had also sponsored an e-petition on the same issue through the Legislative Assembly's petitions portal.
Mr Hanson, through solicitors, had argued the petition was not tabled when the bill was debated in 2021 because he had used other means to represent his constituents' views.
"These arguments are less than compelling," Dr Crispin wrote.
"The language used in the petition tabled on 4 September calls upon the Assembly to 'stop the legislation that would decriminalise' heroin, not to repeal legislation already in force. Hence it seems clear that this petition was prepared and signed by petitioners at some [time] prior to the amendment being passed.
"Furthermore, this petition had 3160 signatories whilst the e-petition had only 361 signatories. It has not been explained why Mr Hanson sponsored both the e-petition and the one tabled on 4 September concerning the same issue."
