Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Standing Committee of Privileges and Members’ Interests I present the committee’s report entitled Procedures of the committee and the House in relation to consideration of privilege matters and procedural fairness.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

by leave—The report I have just tabled reports on the committee’s consideration of procedures for the committee and the House in relation to consideration of privilege matters to provide natural justice and procedural fairness. In October 2008, the committee presented to the House a discussion paper on these matters. By way of background, in November 2002 the committee advised the House that it had developed procedures that it would follow for witnesses and others who may be involved with the committee in its consideration of matters of privilege. The procedures were developed to provide for natural justice and procedural fairness for witnesses before the committee.

During the 41st Parliament the committee commenced a review of these procedures. As part of the review the committee sought advice on its procedures from two leading academics in the field of parliamentary privilege, Professor Geoffrey Lindell and Professor Gerard Carney. The committee invited comment on that paper before asking the secretariat to review the paper and propose a response to the recommendations made by Professors Carney and Lindell. The response included proposed procedures for the committee’s consideration of matters of privilege.

The committee sought the views of the Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the House on the proposed secretariat response. In response, the Clerk and Deputy Clerk did not support the transfer of the penal jurisdiction of the House of Representatives from the House to the courts, as had been proposed in the paper by Lindell and Carney. The Clerk of the Senate, in advice to the committee, also did not support the transfer. The view of the Senate is an important consideration in relation to any proposed change, given that the two houses have in common the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987. The Clerk and the Deputy Clerk supported appropriate procedures for the committee to ensure the protection of procedural fairness and natural justice and considered that the procedures proposed in the secretariat paper were reasonable.

The committee presented this information in a report I tabled in the House in October 2008. The committee indicated its view that it did not support the transfer of the penal jurisdiction of the House of Representatives from the House to the courts. Consequently, the committee noted the importance of having appropriate procedures to ensure natural justice and procedural fairness for persons involved in the committee’s processes. The committee invited comment on the proposed procedures before it reported back to the House to make recommendations for the formal implementation of the procedures.

The committee also noted that there were some additional recommendations that related to the way matters of contempt are dealt with by the House after the committee has examined the matters and reported. The committee proposed that these matters be covered by an additional resolution of the House. The committee did not receive any comment on the proposed procedures and now recommends that the House formally adopt, by resolution, procedures for the committee and the House in relation to consideration of privilege matters to ensure natural justice and procedural fairness. I commend the report to the House.