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Work of Committee of Privileges: Some Facts and Figures
Conduct of Inquiries
On receiving a reference from the Senate, the Committee of Privileges normally seeks, in writing, inputs from the persons involved. It provides them with all available evidence and invites a response. Such responses often elicit more questions from the committee, which seeks to answer them by providing the further documentation it has received from the complainant to the other persons involved, and vice versa, and inviting further written submissions. Claim and counterclaim can be traded through the committee until it is satisfied it has sufficient reliable evidence on which to reach its conclusions. In the event that the committee considers that it needs to hear evidence in person from those involved, it will invite them to a public hearing. This is the exception, however, rather than the rule. Since its inception, the committee has held public hearings into 12 matters, involving 20 days of public hearings; since the passage of the privilege resolutions in 1988, 13 days of public hearings have been held involving nine cases.
The length of time taken by the committee to complete an inquiry depends on a number of factors: the inherent complexity of the reference; the number of references under consideration simultaneously; the promptness of responses from participants; the interruptions brought about by parliamentary elections; the vagaries of the parliamentary calendar; and the type of reference. From reference to report, the committee’s inquiries have taken from one day (Reports nos 34, 38 and 97) to 25 months (Report no. 67). The average duration of the 45 right-of-reply inquiries has been 28 days; 33, or 73 per cent, have been completed within a month and 12, or 27 per cent, within one week. Possible contempt matters may take considerably longer, on average just over 8 months.
List of public hearings of the Committee of Privileges (1988-current)
Date |
Inquiry |
Report |
10 May 1989 |
Possible Improper Interference with a Witness – Drugs in Sport Inquiry |
17 |
9 December 1991
27 April 1992 |
Possible Improper Interference with a Witness and Possible Misleading Evidence before the National Crime Authority Committee |
36 |
25 March 1993
3 April 1993 |
Possible adverse treatment of a witness before the Corporations and Securities Committee |
42 |
18 August 1994 |
Parliamentary Privileges Amendment (Enforcement of Lawful Orders) Bill 1994 |
49 |
18 August 1994
27 October 1994
28 October 1994 |
Possible penalty or injury to a witness before the Standing Committee on industry, Science, Technology, Transport, Communications and infrastructure |
55 |
16 April 1997
31 January 1997 |
Possible threats of legal proceedings against a Senator and other persons |
67 |
25 May 2001 |
Possible unauthorised disclosure of a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Securities |
99 |
24 October 2002 |
Possible unauthorised disclosure of report of Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Legislation Committee |
112 |
3 May 2005 |
Parliamentary privilege — unauthorised disclosure of committee proceedings |
122 |
For further information, contact:
Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committee of Privileges
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
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