Chapter 18 - Documents tabled in the Senate
Other submissions to the Senate
A person who wishes to bring matters to the attention of the Senate
other than by petition may write to the President or Clerk. The President may
table the correspondence if it is considered that the Senate should be informed
of it.
On 1 November 1988 and 28 February 1989 the President tabled submissions from a Deputy
President of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission concerning his
position on the Commission (J.1050, 1385). These submissions led to the
appointment of the Joint Select
Committee on the Tenure of Appointees to Commonwealth Tribunals to inquire into
the principles which should govern that tenure (report of the committee, 30 November 1989,
PP 289/1989).
On 25 February 1992 a submission relating to proceedings in the Senate and
in Estimates Committee A was tabled by the Deputy President. The claim was made
in the submission that false evidence had been given to the committee and that
false answers may have been given in respect of a question without notice.
Another submission from the same citizen relating to alleged false evidence
given to the committee was tabled on 4 May 1992 (J.2007, 2238).
The matters raised in the submissions were examined in part by the Public
Accounts Committee in the course of its inquiry into an Australian Customs
Service investigation and prosecution case involving the Midford Paramount
company. This matter had been referred to the committee by the Senate. In its
report the committee “concluded that not only the minister, but also Midford,
their Tariff Advisor, the Comptroller-General and the committee had been misled
... ”. (Joint Committee of
Public Accounts, Report 325, the Midford Paramount Case and Related
Matters, PP 491/1992, p. 206.) Questions raised by the submissions, together
with allegations of improper interference with the submitter in his capacity as
a witness before the Public Accounts Committee, were subsequently referred to
the Senate Privileges
Committee. That committee concluded that a contempt had been committed by a
threat by an unknown person to the witness, and that misleading answers had not
been intentionally given (50th report of the committee, December
1994, PP 322/1994). The person who made the submission was compensated by the
government because of his treatment by the Customs Service.
Similarly, in its 71st and 72nd reports, in 1998,
the Privileges Committee reported on matters which were raised in submissions
made by persons to the Senate, the first involving alleged misleading evidence
to a Senate committee and the second alleged interference with a person who
provided information to a senator (PP 86/1998, 117/1998).
Other legislatures
have occasionally submitted documents to the Senate. On 29 August 1962, the Legislative
Council for the Northern Territory submitted a document entitled “The
Remonstrance”, the terms of which
were in a resolution agreed to by the Council, and referred to grievances of
the Council (J.129). Another remonstrance passed by the Legislative Assembly of
that territory was presented on 28 October 1996, and a resolution of the Norfolk Island Assembly was
presented on the same day (J.765). A
resolution of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly on East Timorese
asylum seekers was presented on 9
December 2002 (J.1261). A
resolution of the Queensland Legislative Assembly requesting an inquiry into a
criminal prosecution was tabled on 24 November 2003 (J.2688).
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