Henry Melville
THIS REVIEW into ethical conduct – in my opinion – is the single most important endeavour that Tasmania has undertaken in the past half a century. It forms the basis for public confidence in democracy and Open Government.
The exercise of soundly-based ethical conduct within the public sector, amongst elected parliamentarians and their leaders gives the most precise portrait of the society that we are part of.
In 1891 Oscar Wilde wrote ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’. It is a fictitious dramatisation of the consequences in the life of a man who is authentically painted in his handsomeness and pride as a young man and who dreams that he can remain so forever and still take part in a decadent world. As Dorian realizes his picture is indeed taking on his every subtle change in character and physical weakening, a Mephistophelian pact is entered into with the picture becoming the only truthful presentation of the actual life lived by the seemingly untouched subject.
‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ was a prophetic judgment of British society’s moral & ethical standards at the height of Victorian dominion and ethical decay. Dorian Gray is also a salient metaphor in the journey of every human culture that needs to remain truthful and genuine in the face of an ever changing world.
The importance of ethics to any society’s health and sustainability are not difficult to encapsulate ….but they do require self-reflection and invariably self-admonition. The process of stirring up the mud in a retrospective review and then allowing muck to settle requires heroes with one-thousand faces and not the just the two-faces of a Janus.
I ask all Committee members to take time to reflect not just on the matter directly in hand but to examine themselves personally – as elected leaders – in the matter of ethical conduct and the Open Government. I ask each of them to search for their Picture of Dorian Gray that they might have hidden away, out of sight out of mind.
This is a necessary catharsis that must happen to protect and strengthen this island society. But it will take courage from ‘the gatekeepers’.
IS Tasmania ready and brave enough to say ‘sorry’ not just to the aboriginal Stolen Generation; not just the victims of sexual abuse as wards of the State; not just other disadvantage groups, but is it ready to say ‘sorry’ and forgive itself for the actions it has committed against itself?
