Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move the motion, as amended:

(1)

That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee on the Integrity of the Prime Minister’s Office, be established to inquire into and report by 3 December 2008 on:

(a)

the reported leak of the telephone conversation between the Prime Minister of Australia and the President of the United States of America on 10 October 2008;

(b)

the role and any involvement of the Prime Minister’s office in relation to the leak;

(c)

the role and any involvement of the ‘Note Taker’, who was with the Prime Minister listening in on the telephone conversation, and any other person present or listening (if any) in regards to the leak;

(d)

the role and any involvement of any of the persons, present at the location where and when the telephone conversation was made, in regards to the leak;

(e)

the role of any ministerial staffer or public servant in regards to the leak;

(f)

the role of any member of the media in regards to the leak;

(g)

why the Australian Federal Police have not been asked to investigate the leak, especially if it is the view the conversation was leaked by either a ministerial staffer or public servant without the authority of the Prime Minister;

(h)

the reported complaint by the United States Ambassador about the leak;

(i)

the impact of the leak on undermining Australia’s reputation and trustworthiness of the Prime Minister’s office; and

(j)

the ongoing consequences of the leak for relationships between Australia and the United States and any other country.

(2)

That the committee consist of 8 members, 3 nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate, 3 nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, 1 nominated by the Leader of Family First in the Senate and 1 nominated by any other minority party or independent senator.

(a)

On the nominations of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and any minority party and independent senators, participating members may be appointed to the committee;

(b)

participating members may participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee; and

(c)

a participating member shall be taken to be a member of the committee for the purpose of forming a quorum of the committee if a majority of members of the committee is not present.

(3)

That the committee may proceed to the dispatch of business notwithstanding that not all members have been duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy.

(4)

That the committee elect a Government member as its chair.

(5)

That the chair of the committee may, from time to time, appoint another member of the committee to be the deputy chair of the committee, and that the member so appointed act as chair of the committee at any time when there is no chair or the chair is not present at a meeting of the committee.

(6)

That, in the event of an equally divided vote, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote.

(7)

That the quorum of the committee be 5 members.

(8)

That the committee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, but that no journalist shall be asked to reveal their source, to move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding any prorogation of the Parliament or dissolution of the House of Representatives, and have leave to report from time to time its proceedings and the evidence taken and interim recommendations.

(9)

In exercising its power in accordance with paragraph (8), for the avoidance of doubt, the committee is empowered to send for:

(a)

ministers and ministerial advisers; and

(b)

officers of the security and police services.

(10)

That the committee be provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of the committee with the approval of the President.

(11)

That the committee be empowered to print from day to day such documents and evidence as may be ordered by it, and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in public.

Question put.