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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 9 Hansard (22 August) . . Page.. 3211 ..
Report No 9
Mr Speaker presented the following report:
Administration and Procedure-Standing Committee-Report No 9-Legislative Assembly (Privilege) Bill 1998, dated 21 August 2001, together with a copy of the extracts of the minutes of proceedings.
MR OSBORNE (5.57): I move:
That the report be noted.
Mr Speaker, I seek leave to incorporate my speech in Hansard.
Leave granted.
The speech read as follows:
The Bill was introduced in the Assembly on 20 May 1998.
The genesis of the Bill was concerns that had been raised in the 3rd Assembly about the protection that was available to officers of the Assembly and others who published or distributed interstate a report of the former Standing Committee on Legal Affairs.
[Though the Assembly had authorised publication of the report there were concerns raised as to the legal protection that was available to its publication beyond Members of the Assembly.]
As summarised in the report, the main features of the Bill are to
declare certain powers, privileges and immunities of the Legislative Assembly (Part II of the Bill);
clarify some areas of law relating to the privilege applying to authorised publications of the Assembly and its committees (Part II of the Bill);
define the precincts of the Legislative Assembly (Part III of the Bill); and
set in place certain statutory defenses in relation to breach of a number of privileges (Part IV of the Bill).
In considering the Bill, the committee decided to address the issues relating to the precincts separately from the other sections of the Bill.
Assembly precinct
In relation to the Assembly precinct the committee has recommended that:
The Members' car park not be included in the precinct.
[The committee concluded, on balance, that the practical difficulties associated with including the Members' car park within the precinct outweighed the benefits.]
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