Mrs Dunne told the meeting of speakers and clerks about the ACT's decision to appoint a commissioner for standards to investigate complaints about politicians in the ACT Assembly.

The commissioner, former Supreme Court judge Ken Crispin, is now embarking on his first investigation, after Mrs Dunne confirmed this week that she had referred a complaint about Education Minister Joy Burch to him.

Liberal Leader Jeremy Hanson has asked Dr Crispin to investigate whether Ms Burch breached the parliamentary codes of conduct by facilitating her son's involvement with mentoring group Menslink.

Mrs Dunne was accompanied by her husband, Lyle Dunne, when she visited Samoa in June and July last year at a cost to the public purse of $9000.

The visit came three months after travel by spouses was banned, but Mrs Dunne took her husband because the trip had been approved before the ban was imposed. It was the final trip taken by a politicians spouse in the ACT.

Mrs Dunne spoke to the Apia conference about ethics and integrity, asking why the reputation of politicians was so "embarrassingly and consistently bad".

She said parliamentarians must be above suspicion, but listed examples of how some politicians had undermined public confidence.

They included sending questionable "selfies" to a mistress while being the chair of the parliamentary ethics committees; using parliamentary privilege to deny using a corporate credit card to buy trips to brothels; trying to circumvent electoral donation laws through slush funds; using parliamentary allowances for private purposes; failing to list gifts on members' statements of interests; editing Cabinet minutes to say the opposite of what was agreed so as to provide a financial benefit to "mates".

She said systems of allowances and expenses should be transparent, avoid grey areas, and be able to be policed.

"The motto should be 'lead us not into temptation'," she said.

"Bending the rules, even the smallest ones, can lead to an environment where misconduct thrives ... It seems to me that corruption often starts with quite small, almost trivial examples, often connected with misuse of allowances. We should discourage these through creating a climate of integrity, as I've said – but we should also think about designing allowance schemes so as to minimise temptation."

Mrs Dunne urged fellow parliamentarians to build a culture where even small lapses were not tolerated, and said "everyday vigilance" was better than "star-chamber-style inquiries". Such inquiries tended to drag on slowly, become politicised, and require a quasi-judicial burden of proof, she said.

"Instead of the big, showpiece commissions, it might be better to focus on the more modest approaches that create a culture of integrity through every-day vigilance. In this area, it seems to me self-evident that prevention, if achievable, is better than cure," she said.

She outlined Dr Crispin's role as investigator of breaches of the members' code of conduct, and the appointment of Stephen Skehill as an ethics and integrity adviser from whom Assembly members can seek confidential advice.

Mr Skehill's report for 2013-14 says Assembly members asked him for advice six times during the year, including on the subject of access to and use of travel entitlements.

Other topics were whether it was appropriate for a member to accept an honorary appointment to an outside entity, whether it was appropriate for a member to accept nomination to a committee of the Assembly in light of their family relationships, and personnel management. The previous year, no one sought his advice.