Page 3171 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 September 1993
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Mrs Carnell: Not many.
MR LAMONT: I hear Mrs Carnell say, "Not many". That is incorrect. If we want to get into a prolonged debate about that, I am prepared to do so outside this chamber. I issue exactly the same challenge to anybody else who adopts the cowardly position of using parliamentary privilege to attack or impugn improperly the motives or the integrity of people outside this chamber. I certainly hope that this motion draws the attention of members of the Assembly to their obligations.
Mrs Carnell: We never use that improperly.
MR LAMONT: Mrs Carnell, for your information, when you go back over the history of this Assembly in relation to this question, it has been the Liberal Party, members of the Alliance Government and Independents who have abused the concept of parliamentary privilege. That, very simply, is the fact. In relation to that question, at the time of the tabling of the report by the standing committee, I did acknowledge that, when a person was named by Mr Stevenson during the time of the First Assembly and information was brought to Mr Stevenson's attention subsequently to that, Mr Stevenson stood up and unequivocally withdrew, and he most certainly apologised for any hurt.
Mr De Domenico: And rightly so.
MR LAMONT: And rightly so. It could be said that that occasion resulted to some extent from the inexperience of the First Assembly in dealing with the question of parliamentary privilege. I am sure that Mr Stevenson would acknowledge that, on that occasion, the pursuit of what he considered to be a quite serious matter could have been tempered had more investigation been undertaken by the people who provided him with information. This motion is timely, and it is timely for all members of the Assembly, on both sides of the house and, indeed, on the cross benches. The Government has a great deal of conviction in supporting this motion, Madam Speaker.
MR HUMPHRIES (11.08): Madam Speaker, I think this motion raises a matter of some significance. I think we need to sort out where the Assembly stands on it. I welcome the form of this motion. I think that Mr Moore's motion reflects a valuable formula for allowing us to proceed to exercise parliamentary privilege in this place. It is essential that a power as potent as parliamentary privilege be tempered by certain principles, and I believe that the principles enunciated in this motion are appropriate. We should never exercise the power of parliamentary privilege in the heat of the moment; we should do so only on careful reflection. We should do so only honestly and on the basis that we believe that the claims or assertions that are made about members of the public, or members of this Assembly, for that matter, are well founded and can be substantiated.
Madam Speaker, there is an essential point, though, to note, and Mr Moore made this point, I thought, very well. There has not been an occasion, in my estimation, and obviously in Mr Moore's estimation, where a member of the Assembly has exercised that power without very, very careful thought about it. It may be that some members have made mistakes in the course of that, and Mr Lamont referred to Mr Stevenson's references to Mr Gold in the previous Assembly. I cannot recall any other occasion, certainly not recently, where I would say that a mistake has been made, and I am referring quite expressly to the situation of Mr Charles Wright.
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