Unethical misconduct by public figures, proven and alleged, is in the public eye almost daily. No one is above suspicion, including Prime Minister Tony Abbott and former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The last term of Federal Parliament was dogged by the charges against former Liberal Peter Slipper and Labor MP Craig Thomson. Since the election there have been various matters including wedding attendance on the public purse, extravagant expenditure and unexplained travel. In most cases lack of transparency and defensiveness by those implicated have fuelled media-driven public irritation.
Is it a case of a few bad apples or are there systemic problems? There are levels of seriousness in these cases and it is helpful to disaggregate them to keep a sense of perspective. First there are the big crooks. They would include the New South Wales Labor MP Eddie Obeid and the NSW Health Services Union leader and former ALP national president, Michael Williamson. Both were shameless in enriching themselves to the tune of millions of dollars.
Secondly, there are the little crooks, those who allegedly have cooked the books to deceive authorities about the true purpose of travel expenditure. While in both cases investigations have not concluded, Slipper and WA MP Don Randall are probably in this category. Slipper allegedly concealed the true purpose of private trips around Canberra, while Randall claimed 'electorate expenses' for a trip from Perth to Cairns with his wife.
Finally, there are those MPs who attended weddings, of colleagues and shock jocks, at public expense. Some might also include apparently loose expenditure under the parliamentary library allowance.
To be fair to the MPs involved they are held to a high standard. They live in a society in which fudging expenses and arranging affairs to minimise taxation is widespread. Perhaps we shouldn't rush to judgment.
However when MPs repay disputed funds they often do so grudgingly, rarely admitting wrongdoing or even a mistake. This aloofness only exacerbates mistrust. Partial and shallow apologies are next to worthless.
Once individual cases have been resolved administratively or by the courts two bigger questions remain.
The first is 'what can we do about it?' The short answer is to demand higher standards of our elected representatives. Tighter mechanisms of accountability must accompany this aspiration. A few big crooks will still escape the net as they do in many areas of private and public life. We have to expect that.
A more promising approach is to minimise grey areas