Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I inform the House that, more than two weeks ago and while the House was not sitting, the honourable member for Melbourne raised a matter of privilege with me under standing order 52. In his correspondence, the member for Melbourne provided information and his reasons for requesting the urgent referral to the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests as a matter of privilege or contempt about whether the member for Cook had deliberately misled the House by action or omission in causing himself, when he was Prime Minister, to be sworn in to multiple portfolios as an additional minister without informing the House.

I responded to the member for Melbourne about the matters he raised, and I now also report to the House. Deliberately misleading the House is one of the matters that can be found to be a contempt. While claims that members have deliberately misled the House have been raised as matters of privilege or contempt on several occasions, no Speaker has referred such a matter or given precedence to allow such a matter to be referred as of right to the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests. To establish that contempt has been committed through action or omission, it would need to be shown that (1) a definite action or omission had, in fact, been misleading; (2) the member knew at the time the action or omission was incorrect; and (3) the misleading had been deliberate.

The matter of deliberately misleading the House is a serious one, and, rightly, there should be a prima facie evidence that the House has been misled and the misleading has been deliberate in order for the Speaker to act under standing order 52 or 51. I've told the member for Melbourne that, on the information available to me, it does not seem that a prima facie case has been made out in terms of the detail that Speakers have always required in relation to such allegations. It then follows that, in accordance with the practice of the House, I did not refer the matter to the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests. Nevertheless, I understand the concerns of the member and other members about the matters he raised. While in accordance with the practice of the House precedence as of right to a motion for this matter to be referred to the Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests cannot be given, it's still open to the House itself to determine a course of action in relation to this matter.

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