John Hogg (President) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Heffernan has raised a matter of privilege under standing order 81. The matter relates to alleged threatening and intimidation of a witness who gave evidence at a public hearing of the Economics Legislation Committee on Friday last, Mr Godwin Grech. Senator Heffernan alleges that the threatening and intimidation consisted of ‘backgrounding’ of the media in a manner prejudicial to Mr Grech. Reports have appeared in the press concerning Mr Grech’s alleged illness and his reliability as a witness. Senator Heffernan has also drawn attention to the search of Mr Grech’s home by the Australian Federal Police and suggests that, if this search was a consequence of Mr Grech’s evidence before the committee, this could amount to intimidation of a witness. Senator Heffernan emphasises that he is not concerned with the merits or otherwise of the matter relating to the email allegedly received by Mr Grech.

I am required under the standing order to determine whether a motion to refer the matter to the Privileges Committee should have precedence, taking into account the following criteria.

(a)

the principle that the Senate’s power to adjudge and deal with contempts should be used only where it is necessary to provide reasonable protection for the Senate and its committees and for senators against improper acts tending substantially to obstruct them in the performance of their functions, and should not be used in respect of matters which appear to be of a trivial nature or unworthy of the attention of the Senate; and

(b)

the existence of any remedy other than that power for any act which may be held to be a contempt.

These criteria basically go to the seriousness of the matter raised. The Senate and the Privileges Committee have always taken extremely seriously any suggestion that a witness has been threatened or intimidated in respect of their evidence before a Senate committee. Every case raised by a senator has been referred to the Privileges Committee for inquiry and report. The Privileges Committee stated in paragraph 4.73, page 46, of its 125th Report—Parliamentary privilege: Precedents, procedure and practice in the Australian Senate 1966-2005:

The committee continues to regard the protection of persons providing information to the Senate, and in particular of witnesses before parliamentary committees, as constituting the single most important duty of the Senate, and therefore of the committee as its delegate, in determining possible contempts. As a result all 20 cases of possible intimidation reported on to date have been considered with the utmost care and have resulted in the most comprehensive inquiries which the committee has undertaken.

In light of the precedents, I have determined that I should give precedence to a motion to refer the matter to the Privileges Committee by means of the attached suggested statement. A notice of motion to do so may now be given.