PREFACE

On 20 May 1987 the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987 came into operation. The primary purpose of the Act was to declare legislatively what had long been understood to be the scope of freedom of speech in Parliament. The necessity for the declaration derived from unusual judicial interpretations, by two judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, of the position concerning the use of proceedings in Parliament during court proceedings. Unlike previous judgments on the question, the two judgments indicated that words spoken in parliamentary proceedings could be used against a person in subsequent court proceedings.

While the need to make a corrective declaration provided the impetus for the passage of the Act, opportunity was also taken to bring into effect changes to the law partly based on recommendations of the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Privilege, tabled in the Senate and the House of Representatives in October 1984, which required legislation for their operation.

In addition, on 25 February 1988 the Senate passed a series of resolutions relating to parliamentary privilege. These resolutions were intended to be complementary to the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987 and were also partly based on recommendations in the report of the joint committee.

By the end of 1991, after almost four years of experience of operating under the Act and the resolutions, the Senate Committee of Privileges made a general report on its work. The report, which was tabled in the Senate on 2 December 1991, gave an outline of the general principles governing the cases which it had considered, paying particular attention to an innovatory process adopted by the Senate to permit a right of reply to persons adversely referred to in the Senate.

Another purpose of that report was to place on the public record, in an easily accessible form, documents governing the operation of privilege in the Senate, together with a thematic summary of the Committee's reports, advices and other matters to give guidance to persons who might be affected by the Senate's contempt jurisdiction. That report also briefly described the meaning of privilege, immunity and contempt and the basis of the powers of each House of Parliament under section 49 of the Constitution.

The purpose of the present report is to update the earlier report and again to give easy access to the core privilege documents of the Senate and its committees. In addition to the normal hard-copy publication of the report, therefore, it will be available on the Parliamentary Database and the Internet.

Since the publication of the 1991 report, the committee has tabled a further 26 reports, several of which have gone to the heart of the relationship between the Parliament and the executive, and many of which have raised new aspects of parliamentary privilege. These too are summarised in this report. The most satisfactory feature of the committee's work since 1991 has been that it has consolidated and built upon procedures and trends already identified in its earlier general report.

Finally, the committee has decided to place its work in the context of the operation of privilege since the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. This aspect of the report illustrates the continuity of the Senate's approach to privilege since federation, despite the codification of privilege rules and proceedings and the increasing quantity and complexity of the cases which the Committee of Privileges has been required to consider. The report includes as appendices a resume of each committee report and its outcome, together with a full list of committee members, chairs and deputy chairs, an index to all committee reports and a brief statistical summary of the work of the committee.