ACT shadow attorney-general Peter Cain was forced to apologise to the Legislative Assembly as he breached the code of conduct after his son-in-law completed an internship in his office.
The commissioner of standards found Mr Cain sought to gain a benefit for a family member.
Mr Cain's son-in-law was an intern in his office between September 2021 to November 2021.
The Commissioner for Standards Ken Crispin KC considered four possible breaches of the act, finding that Mr Cain had breached one of these.
The act says "members should always act in the public interest, make decisions and choices on merit and not seek to gain financial or other benefit for themselves, their family or friends".
The commissioner found Mr Cain had breached this particular part.
Mr Cain said in his response to the commissioner he sought to treat his son-in-law in the same matter as other interns and the arrangement did not cause any other applicant to be denied an internship, which are unpaid. But the commissioner still believed it constituted a breach.
"I have no reason to doubt Mr Cain's assurance that he sought to treat [his son-in-law] the same as other interns," Mr Crispin said in the report.
"However, the vocational placement itself was clearly intended to be of benefit to him. It was intended to fulfil a requirement of his course of study ... and presumably to give him valuable experience."
Under the act, a member of the Legislative Assembly is not allowed to employ a family member, however, a son-in-law is not considered a family member and the commissioner dismissed the complaint related to this breach.
But the Legislative Assembly's standing committee on administration and procedure, which considered the commissioner's findings, recommended the act be updated to include in-laws as family members.
There was also a separate finding against Mr Cain's office, which found an email sent from his Assembly email address constituted a misuse of public resources.
The email, sent on November 17, was about the Canberra Liberals election pledge to give $100 million towards upgrades for Canberra suburbs.
The email was critical of the government, including statements such as "household rates are increasing year after year under this Labor-Greens government" and that constituents were telling him "they're tired of this Labor-Greens government neglecting them".
The Legislative Assembly email address is supposed to be used for communicating with constituents and cannot include messages of a political nature.
Mr Cain said a staffer in his office sent the email and he had no oversight of this. The commissioner recommended the complaint be dismissed but the committee took the view that Mr Cain should apologise to the Assembly.
"In the committee's view, Mr Cain had failed to ensure that his personal staff were mindful of his commitment to the code," the committee said.
The complaints were made by Labor minister Tara Cheyne.
