Page 312 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008

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(1) Preamble

Members of the Legislative Assembly endorse and adopt the Commonwealth (Latimer) House Principles on the Three Branches of Government as agreed by Law Ministers and endorsed by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Abuja, Nigeria, 2003.

Members do so in acknowledgment that the principles express the fundamental values they believe should govern the relationship between the three branches of government in the Australian Capital Territory.

The Principles

(2) Objective

The objective of these Principles is to provide, in accordance with the laws and customs of each Commonwealth country, an effective framework for the implementation by governments, parliaments and judiciaries of the Commonwealth’s fundamental values.

(a) The Three Branches of Government

Each Commonwealth country’s parliaments, executives and judiciaries are the guarantors in their respective spheres of the rule of law, the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights and the entrenchment of good governance based on the highest standards of honesty, probity and accountability.

(b) Parliament and the Judiciary

(i) Relations between parliament and the judiciary should be governed by respect for parliament’s primary responsibility for law making on the one hand and for the judiciary’s responsibility for the interpretation and application of the law on the other hand.

(ii) Judiciaries and parliaments should fulfil their respective but critical roles in the promotion of the rule of law in a complementary and constructive manner.

(i) Parliamentarians must be able to carry out their legislative and constitutional functions in accordance with the Constitution, free from unlawful interference.

(ii) Criminal and defamation laws should not be used to restrict legitimate criticism of parliament; the offence of contempt of parliament should be narrowly drawn and reporting of the proceedings of parliament should not be unduly restricted by narrow application of the defence of qualified privilege.

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