Harry Quick (Franklin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I ask whether the chair of any committee should require public servants to work day and night for several weeks—in this instance, ironically enough, on a report on balancing work and family life. I seek your guidance on whether committee secretariat staff should be expected to work past midnight and work chronically unreasonable hours to meet the insatiable demands of the chair, the member for Mackellar, for a report that she proceeds to withhold from other committee members. Mr Speaker, I also seek your advice on whether a committee chair who passes a motion when half of the committee is unavoidably absent, giving her the authority to disclose sections of the report to media at her discretion, is in breach of privilege if she discloses any content before tabling the report.

See this speech in context