Parliamentary Standards Bill

I wholeheartedly congratulate the Government on their withdrawal of subsections (2) and (3). It was a very sensible act on their part, because the offences would be triable summarily in a magistrates’ court. Magistrates are wholly unqualified, in my respectful submission, to deal with either of those matters—the registration of interests or paid advocacy. It is a realm that is entirely without their cognisance. Of course, they are citizens and extremely interested in those issues, but they would have no real qualification to deal with that matter at all. They will be fumbling in the dark with regard to issues that, with the greatest respect, they could not possibly understand fully. There is a second reason. Magistrates in many areas are still appointed to some extent on a political basis. Every attempt is made to see that the political constitution of a magistrates’ Bench is not dissimilar to the political breakdown of that particular PSD—petty sessional division. That is perfectly proper, but the tendency could well be for magistrates to think in political terms in relation to these matters—or, if that is not the case, for there to be a public perception that they might do so. In other words, if a member of party A was acquitted, the public might say, "Oh yes, well she was on the Bench—they belong to party A". The same would go for parties B and C. For those reasons, it is entirely proper that this matter should not have gone to a magistrates’ court. As far as the other matters are concerned, I shall not repeat what I have already said, but there is a philosophical and esoteric distinction between dishonesty and the offence spelt out in subsection (1). In practice, I cannot think of a case falling under subsection (1) that would not be dishonest. It is not the esoteric consideration that the ordinary juror or magistrate as a judge of fact would be considering. The issue would be this: the defendant would be saying that he did not know. In each case, whether under the Theft Act, the Fraud Act or this Bill, the defence for the defendant would be, "I simply didn’t know". That is what the jury would have to consider—whether they are satisfied that they are sure he knew. It is as simple as that. We are talking about theoretical distinctions that, in practice, would provide very little difficulty.