Caesar's wife, and the appearance of propriety

This is about Australian politics, for the passersby.

The wife of the present Labor leader and would-be prime minister of Australia is a successful business woman, running a company that places contract workers. After a slip in which an acquired set of contracts were substantially below what one might expect for trading off terms and conditions, and where her husband opposes such contracts in employment, she has decided, it is reported, to sell off her interest in the Australian company (there's a UK company as well, it seems).

I think this is just wrong. It is wrong on several levels - first, the idea that leaders cannot have partners who have independent interests is basically sexist, as most of them will be women (especially in the Labor party, it seems). Second, the idea that leaders should be isolated from interactions with the community they are notional representatives of seems to me to imply that we need a professional political class from whom to take representatives. This is not good. If we want representatives to actually represent, they have to remain engaged in the society from which they come, and that includes business dealings. But most of all, my problem with this is that it implies that if there is no appearance of impropriety, anything goes, and that is to sweep a large problem under the carpet, and invite corruption.

We need to have rules for insulating decisions from self interests. In this case it would have been right to have an independent committee, or the public service, make decisions in which any bid for a government contract included Ms Rein's company in a blind test. If her company was the best, then she should have the contract even if her husband happens to be PM. He should not make that decision, nor should anyone who is acting in his behalf, but there is no need for her to sell her business.

All governments have individuals in them with interests. We've seen how this plays out in the US, where the Bush family and its friends and allies have benefited mightily from their political decisions, and the contracts they entail. Without independent decision making, this is open to the massive corruption of the Haliburtons of this world. But I don't want Australia to be as corrupt as the US - I want it to have no more than any decent society can tolerate.

So we need strict rules, independent courts, and swift procedures by which these conflicts of interest can be isolated and contained. Now. For all such contracts, and not merely those of the families of presumptive PMs. It's not enough to merely appear not to be corrupt. We need to ensure that you really cannot be.