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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 9 Hansard (22 August) . . Page.. 3212 ..

Other key recommendations relating to the precinct made by the committee are that:

the Bill be amended to make provision for a flexibility to expand the precincts without amending the parent Act (as is the case in the Northern Territory);

the Bill be amended to ensure that the nexus between the Speaker's traditional powers and those he has under the Crimes (Offences against the Government) Act are made explicit in the Bill; and

the Speaker and the Minister responsible for policing agree to general arrangements for the conduct of police officers or special members of the Australian Federal Police within the precinct, especially when they are excluding or removing a person from the precinct, and the arrangements address the need to ensure Members' access to the building at all times.

Parts II and IV of the Bill

In considering Part II of the Bill the committee spent some time considering the issue of the protection available to the publication of documents authorised for publication by the Assembly or the committees of the Assembly.

[This was the issue that was the catalyst for my original drafting instructions]

The legal advice we had received was that the authorised publication of reports and records of Assembly proceedings outside the Assembly was protected only by qualified privilege, no matter who publishes them or authorises their publication.

[Qualified privilege exists where a person is not liable to an action, say for defamation, if certain conditions are fulfilled, for example, if a statement is not made with malicious intent.]

These doubts were also raised by the Australasian Council of Public Accounts Committees.

However, further advice - particularly that from the Government Solicitor in relation to the publication of committee reports on the internet and from the Clerk of the Senate - concluded that documents authorised for publication by the Assembly or a committee of the Assembly were subject to the protection of absolute privilege throughout the Commonwealth as subsection 24 (3) of the Self-Government Act operates throughout the Commonwealth and prevails over any inconsistent law.

[Subsection 24 (3) is the provision that gives the Assembly, its Members and committees the same powers, privileges and immunities as the House of Representatives, its Members and committees.]

Having deliberated on the issue the committee concluded that it was preferable that the Assembly not proceed to declare its powers, privileges and immunities as proposed in the Bill and not proceed, as proposed, to clarify the law relating to the privilege applying to the authorised publication of the documents of the assembly and its committees.

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