Page 6100 - Week 18 - Thursday, 12 December 1991
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The evidence taken by any committee and documents presented to and proceedings and reports of the committee shall be strictly confidential and shall not be published or divulged by any member of the committee or by any other person, until the report of the committee has been presented to the Assembly: ...
It then goes on with a range of qualifiers, none of which, I submit, release Mr Humphries from the responsibility of reporting to this house first. Mr Moore does not know the outcome of this report; but, if his wife was watching WIN television tonight, she does. Mr Duby happens to know what the report has in it before the rest of the Assembly knows, because Mr Duby happened to be watching WIN News tonight. That is the seriousness of this matter; this house has been treated with contempt.
I will go back to page 614 of House of Representatives Practice and the paragraph headed "Premature disclosure or publication". It states:
Standing order 340 provides that the evidence taken by any select committee of the House and documents presented to and proceedings and reports of such committee, which have not been reported to the House, shall not, unless authorised by the House, be disclosed or published by any member of such committee or by any other person. Contravention of this rule has been held to be a contempt. This is a blanket prohibition which precludes disclosure of all or part of a report, or of its contents.
Mr Humphries will argue that standing order 242(b) releases him from that responsibility. Well, I say to Mr Humphries that he is wrong. Mr Humphries will claim that the words "any press release or public statement made by the Presiding Member of a committee relating to an inquiry" release him from that responsibility. Very clearly, the standing orders of this Assembly and House of Representatives Practice confirm that there has been a contempt of this Assembly. Mr Speaker, I understand that the standing orders require me to notify you in writing of a breach of privilege or a noted breach of privilege, and I will consider doing that at the close of proceedings this evening. I brought the matter before this Assembly at the earliest moment because of the weighty circumstances which surround it.
I do not mind if Mr Humphries submits reports to this house which are critical of the Government. This is a political report. It is a stunt in many respects and we expect to be bucketed by Mr Humphries. That is not a problem. What I do object to, as a member of this Assembly, is being treated with contempt, and reports and findings of a report being released to the media before they have been released to this Assembly. There should be no member in this Assembly who would accept that position.
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