Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (14 November) . . Page.. 3613 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

fashion. It also means that where a penalty is handed out the penalty is appropriate to the offence committed.

Part and parcel of this responsibility is applying the law of contempt as it is and not how people would like it to be.

The act that established the Assembly, the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1998, provides powers for us. Section 24 sets out the powers, privileges and immunities of the Assembly. It says:

(1) powers includes privileges and immunities, but does not include legislative powers.

(2) Without limiting the generality of section 22, the Assembly may also make laws:

(a) declaring the powers of the Assembly and of its members and committees, but so that the powers so declared do not exceed the powers for the time being of the House of Representatives or of its members or committees; and

(b) providing for the manner in which powers so declared may be exercised or upheld.

(3) 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.

(4) Nothing in this section empowers the Assembly to imprison or fine a person.

The Legislative Assembly has not declared its powers. However, the federal parliament has passed the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987. Pages 59 and 60 of Odgers' Australian Senate Practice, 10th edition, advises that the statutory definition of contempt is as follows:

Conduct (including the use of words) does not constitute an offence against a House unless it amounts, or is intended or likely to amount, to an improper interference with the free of exercise by a House or committee of its authority or functions, or with the free performance by a member of the member's duties as a member.

The explanation of this is:

Enactment of this provision means that it is no longer open to a House, as it was under the previous law, to treat any act as a contempt. The provision restricts the category of acts which may be treated as contempts, and it is subject to judicial interpretation. A person punished for a contempt of Parliament could bring an action to attempt to establish that the conduct for which the person was punished did not fall within the statutory definition. This could lead to a court overturning a punishment imposed by a House for a contempt of Parliament.

To retain community respect for the institution of the Assembly and its ability to penalise contempt, the law should be applied rigorously. Otherwise, the Privileges Committee runs the risk of being considered nothing more than a kangaroo court, as does the Assembly if the majority of the report is endorsed, and community respect for the Assembly as an institution will be diminished. In each case the committee is obliged to

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .