APPENDIX C
MEMBERSHIP OF COMMITTEE OF PRIVILEGES, 1967-1999
Standing Order 18(3), previously Standing Order 33A, states that the
Committee of Privileges shall consist of seven senators, four nominated
by the Leader of the Government in the Senate and three by the Leader
of the Opposition.
As of May 1999, there had been 61 members of the Committee of Privileges.
Fifty-three of them were men and eight were women. Twenty-five represented
the Australian Labor Party, twenty-five the Liberal Party, seven the Country
Party, the National Country Party or the National Party, and four the
Australian Democrats. Of the eight women members two (Senators Giles and
Reynolds) represented the Australian Labor Party, three (Senators Coonan,
Knowles and Payne) represented the Liberal Party, and three (Senators
Bourne, Kernot and Powell) represented the Australian Democrats. Senator
Kernot was appointed as a non-voting member for the purposes of the committee's
examination of her private member's bill, the Parliamentary Privileges
Amendment (Enforcement of Lawful Orders) Bill 1994.
The average duration of service of committee members, to the end of May
1999, was three years and five months. The member with the shortest term
of service was Senator MacGibbon, who replaced Senator Lewis for five
weeks in 1990. The longest-serving member was Senator Childs, who was
with the committee for over 14 years. As Figure C.1 shows, several others
have also shown remarkable staying power in the face of an increasing
workload.
Figure C.1: Senators' Years of Service on Committee of Privileges
The 14 senators with five or more years of service on the committee are
reasonably equally divided in party political and geographic terms, with
each state except Queensland being represented by at least one long-serving
member.
In terms of their geographic distribution, 17 members came from Western
Australia, 12 from Tasmania, 10 from Queensland, 9 from Victoria, 9 from
New South Wales, 3 from South Australia and one from the Northern Territory.
Privileges Committee members and their terms of service
Name State Party Term of Service
Note: Since 1966 the committee has been appointed at the beginning of
each Parliament. Where a Parliament has been terminated, the committee
is assumed to have remained in existence until the day before the opening
of the following Parliament. In the case of the dissolution of the Senate,
the committee terminates at the dissolution. However members who were
appointed to successive committees are shown as having unbroken service
and the period between the end of one committee and the appointment of
the next is not shown.
| Archer, Brian Roper |
TAS |
Lib |
19/8/93-31/1/94 |
| Aulich, Terrence Gordon |
TAS |
ALP |
11/9/85-5/6/87 |
| Black, John |
QLD |
ALP |
24/9/87-8/5/90 |
| Bolkus, Nick |
SA |
ALP |
25/8/81-15/6/84; 29/5/85-5/6/87 |
| Bourne, Vicki Worrall |
NSW |
AD |
1/7/90-29/4/92 |
| Branson, George Howard |
WA |
Lib |
5/4/67-14/5/71 |
| Button, John Norman |
VIC |
ALP |
18/7/74-15/6/84 |
| Cant, Hartley Gordon James |
WA |
ALP |
5/4/67-3/3/70; 1/5/73-18/5/74 |
| Childs, Bruce Kenneth |
NSW |
ALP |
4/5/83-24/2/88; 18/3/88-4/9/97 |
| Coates, John |
TAS |
ALP |
15/6/84-29/5/85; 24/9/87-20/8/96 |
| Collard, Stanley James |
QLD |
NCP |
25/8/81-5/3/83 |
| Collins, Robert |
NT |
ALP |
4/9/97-3/3/98 |
| Cook, Peter Francis Salmon |
WA |
ALP |
15/6/84-11/9/85 |
| Coonan, Helen |
NSW |
Lib |
1/7/96- |
| Cooney, Bernard Cornelius |
VIC |
ALP |
24/9/87-18/3/88;11/5/90-30/6/93; 1/9/96-24/11/98 |
| Cormack, Magnus Cameron |
VIC |
Lib |
5/4/67-21/8/68 |
| Devitt, Donald Michael |
TAS |
ALP |
1/5/73-11/11/75 |
| Drake-Brockman, Thomas Charles |
WA |
CP |
5/4/67-24/11/69;29/9/70-26/2/73; 18/7/74-22/7/75;
4/3/76-30/6/78 |
| Durack, Peter Drew |
WA |
Lib |
24/9/87-11/9/90 |
| Eggleston, Alan |
WA |
Lib |
13/2/97- |
| Ellison, Christopher Martin |
WA |
Lib |
18/8/93-30/9/97 |
| Evans, Christopher Vaughan |
WA |
ALP |
24/11/98- |
| Everett, Mervyn George |
TAS |
ALP |
18/7/74-11/11/75 |
| Gibson, Brian Francis |
TAS |
Lib |
15/3/94-4/5/94 |
| Giles, Patricia Jessie |
WA |
ALP |
24/2/88-30/6/93 |
| Greenwood, Ivor John |
VIC |
Lib |
21/8/68-11/11/75 |
| Herron, John |
QLD |
Lib |
19/8/92-18/8/93 |
| Jessop, Donald Scott |
SA |
Lib |
4/3/76-15/6/84 |
| Kernot, Cheryl* |
QLD |
AD |
12/5/94-1/3/95 |
| Knowles, Susan Christine |
WA |
Lib |
2/5/96- |
| Lewis, Austin William Russell |
VIC |
Lib |
11/9/90-13/11/90; 18/12/90-19/8/92 |
| MacGibbon, David John |
QLD |
Lib |
13/11/90-18/12/90 |
| Macklin, Michael John |
QLD |
AD |
4/5/83-5/6/87 |
| Maunsell, Charles Ronald |
QLD |
CP |
1/4/81-30/6/81 |
| McKellar, Gerald Colin |
NSW |
CP |
25/11/69-13/4/70 |
| McKiernan, James Philip |
WA |
ALP |
1/7/93-29/4/96 |
| Missen, Alan Joseph |
VIC |
Lib |
1/4/81-15/6/84; 29/5/85-30/3/86 |
| Morris, Kenneth James |
QLD |
Lib |
5/4/67-30/6/68 |
| Mulvihill, James Anthony |
NSW |
ALP |
19/8/75-11/11/75 |
| Murphy, Lionel Keith |
NSW |
ALP |
25/11/69-9/2/75 |
| O'Byrne, Justin |
TAS |
ALP |
6/5/71-11/4/74; 4/3/76-30/6/81 |
| Panizza, John |
WA |
Lib |
1/7/96-31/1/97 |
| Payne, Marise |
NSW |
Lib |
30/9/97- |
| Poke, Albert George |
TAS |
ALP |
5/4/67-24/11/69 |
| Powell, Janet |
VIC |
AD |
24/9/87-30/6/90; 29/4/92-30/6/93 |
| Rae, Peter Elliot |
TAS |
Lib |
21/8/68-26/2/73; 15/6/84-29/5/85 |
| Ray, Robert |
VIC |
ALP |
25/8/81-5/6/87; 2/5/96- |
| Reynolds, Margaret |
QLD |
ALP |
1/7/93-29/4/96 |
| Rocher, Alan Charles |
WA |
Lib |
19/9/78-10/2/81 |
| Scott, Douglas Barr |
NSW |
NCP |
17/8/78-21/2/80 |
| Sheil, Glenister |
QLD |
NCP |
21/2/80-6/2/81 |
| Sherry, Nick |
TAS |
ALP |
3/3/98- |
| Teague, Baden Chapman |
SA |
Lib |
24/9/87-30/6/96 |
| Thomas, Andrew Murray |
WA |
Lib |
4/3/76-4/2/83 |
| Webster, James Joseph |
VIC |
CP |
22/7/75-11/11/75 |
| Wheeldon, John Murray |
WA |
ALP |
5/4/67-6/5/71 |
| Willesee, Donald Robert |
WA |
ALP |
25/11/69-26/2/73 |
| Withers, Reginald Greive |
WA |
Lib |
14/5/71-19/8/75; 15/6/84-29/5/85 |
| Woods, Robert Leslie |
NSW |
Lib |
4/5/94-29/4/96 |
| Wriedt, Kenneth Shaw |
TAS |
ALP |
18/2/75-19/8/75 |
| Wright, Reginald Charles |
TAS |
Lib |
19/8/75-30/6/78 |
* Non-voting member for the purposes of the committee's examination of
the Parliamentary Privileges (Enforcement of Lawful Orders) Amendment
Bill 1994.