Standards Commissioner dismisses Burch complaint about Liberal election flyer

Dr Crispin has dismissed the complaint without launching a detailed investigation, writing to Liberal Leader Jeremy Hanson, saying, "In the ordinary course of events, I would have written to you upon receipt of the complaint inviting you to give a written response. However, upon reading the relevant material, I quickly formed the view that the complaint could not be sustained and that it was unnecessary to call upon you to provide any explanation or mount a case in reply."

Dr Crispin is still finalising a report, which will be made public.

The Liberals said the complaint was wrong headed, since the flyer had been authorised by campaign director Daniel Clode and did not relate to Mr Hanson's Assembly business, which the code of conduct covers.

Dr Crispin was asked to investigate after Labor backbencher Joy Burch accused Mr Hanson of potentially breaching the members' code of conduct by distributing an election flyer promoting the Liberals' plans to build a new hospital building. The flyer included an image of former emergency department clinical director Michael Hall and quoted news reports in which he had said: "We need to start from scratch and build an emergency department from the ground up. There are still compromises being made." And: "The hospital is seriously under stress."

Ms Burch said the material had been used without Dr Hall's permission and compromised his impartiality as a public servant. Dr Hall has not responded to requests for confirmation or comment. The Liberals, who produced about 20,000 of the flyers, have now replaced Dr Hall's comments with others.

Last Monday, Speaker Vicki Dunne referred Ms Burch's complaint to Dr Crispin, a retired judge, for investigation. By Thursday, August 18, Dr Crispin had prepared his draft report and written to Mr Hanson.

The response is in marked contrast to Dr Crispin's two previous investigations – one into Ms Burch over her handling of the Menslink affair last year, when he concluded that "no breach of the minister's duty has been substantiated", but said the issues were serious and had warranted investigation. The other was this year into Chief Minister Andrew Barr's video endorsement of a private company, when Dr Crispin acknowledged the concern the video had generated, saying, "Whilst some members of the community may remain sceptical of [Mr Barr's] explanation, in my view the suggested mala fides has not been established."

Separately Mr Hanson sought advice from the ethics adviser Stephen Skehill after Ms Burch's complaint. Mr Skehill's advice says he did not breach the code of conduct because the code applies only to members of the Assembly in their conduct as members, and not to political parties. Even if that were not the case, using Dr Hall's words and photo would not breach the code because there was no failure to respect Dr Hall's dignity or privacy, given the comments and photo had been broadcast. It might "have been courteous" for Mr Clode to have informed Dr Hall", but his consent would not have been necessary.

"Simply repeating a view that he has put on the public record does not of itself fail to recognise the unique position of Dr Hall or any other public service office," Mr Skehill told Mr Hanson.

Mr Hanson said Ms Burch's allegations were "entirely vexatious and politically motivated", setting "a very low standard of conduct for herself and the rest of the ACT Labor Party."

Comment has been sought from Ms Burch.