Page 1550 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 17 May 1994
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Until the Assembly makes a law with respect to its powers, the Assembly and its members and committees have the same powers as the powers for the time being of the House of Representatives and its members and committees.
"Powers" includes privileges and immunities but does not include legislative powers. The Federal Parliament has declared a number of the powers, privileges and immunities of the House of Representatives in the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987, subsection 16(3) of which states:
In proceedings in any court or tribunal, it is not lawful for evidence to be tendered or received, questions asked or statements, submissions or comments made, concerning proceedings in Parliament, by way of, or for the purpose of:
(a) questioning or relying on the truth, motive, intention or good faith of anything forming part of those proceedings in Parliament;
(b) otherwise questioning or establishing the credibility, motive, intention or good faith of any person; or
(c) drawing, or inviting the drawing of, inferences or conclusions wholly or partly from anything forming part of those proceedings in Parliament.
The purpose of section 16 was to avoid the consequences of certain judgments in the Supreme Court of New South Wales and to restore the traditional interpretation of article 9 of the Bill of Rights of 1688, which states:
That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament.
House of Representatives Practice comments on the privilege of freedom of speech in the following words:
The privilege has been variously described as a privilege essential to every free council or legislature, as one which has always been regarded as most valuable and most essential, as the only privilege of substance enjoyed by members of Parliament, and as one of the most cherished of all parliamentary privileges, without which parliaments probably would degenerate into polite but ineffectual debating societies. Unquestionably, freedom of speech is by far the most important privilege of members.
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