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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (25 May) . . Page.. 1914 ..

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.34): I will speak very briefly in order to respond to the question Mr Osborne asked about why this matter should be referred back to the urban services committee and not to a committee of privileges. The question was posed to Mr Corbell. There is a very simple answer to that question because the issue at the heart of this is a question of privilege. We are considering a question of privilege. The privileges of the parliament should be jealously guarded. When there is any issue which raises or goes to the privileges of the parliament it is appropriate that it be considered by a privileges committee.

We are talking here about a privilege. This is a matter going to the heart of the privileges of the parliament. That is what the matter is about. The matter is about evidence to a committee of the parliament by the President of the Gungahlin Community Council that he was subjected to pressure. I saw him on WIN Television tonight saying in a clip of the hearing that he was subjected to pressure. That is the view that the people of Canberra saw tonight when this matter was reported. They saw the President of the Gungahlin Community Council saying that the substance of the evidence that he gave to that committee was given as a result of pressure applied by a minister. That is what I saw on my TV tonight. That goes to the heart of the privileges of this place. That evidence that was given to a parliamentary committee-

Mr Moore: If it was on TV it must have been right.

MR STANHOPE: It was a direct telecast of the witness.

Mr Corbell: It's in the bloody Hansard. Read the Hansard, Mr Moore.

MR STANHOPE: It was not only on television; it's in Hansard. It was a television recording of the witness giving evidence before the committee.

Mr Moore: That doesn't make it a matter of privilege.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Stanhope has the floor.

MR STANHOPE: I am not suggesting it makes it a matter privilege. It needs to be investigated as a matter of privilege. That is what is being investigated. That is why a parliament forms a privileges committee-to investigate whether or not there has been a breach of the privileges of the parliament. The privileges of the parliament must be jealously guarded. They must be jealously guarded in order to ensure-

Mr Kaine: Except if you win government.

MR STANHOPE: Yes. They must be jealously guarded in order to ensure that the integrity of the parliamentary process is protected; that when a witness comes before the parliament they give evidence freely and of their own volition, and not subject to pressure from a minister to the effect that if they do not give evidence of a certain sort they will not get what they believe their community needs to function appropriately. That was the suggestion that needs to be investigated.

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