Chapter
2 - Parliamentary Privilege: immunities and powers of the Senate
Qualified privilege
The immunity of
parliamentary proceedings from question or impeachment in the courts is
absolute. This means that the immunity of a member from action for defamation
in respect of what was said in parliamentary debate remains regardless of the
motives in making the remarks in question.
Reports of parliamentary proceedings in newspapers and elsewhere may
attract what the law knows as qualified privilege, that is, a privilege which
may be lost on proof of malice or other improper motive in making the
publication.
Qualified privilege is not a diluted extension of the absolute
parliamentary immunity. The law relating to qualified privilege is a completely
separate branch of the law, related to parliamentary immunities only because it
has application in respect of reports of proceedings in Parliament. It also
applies to other transactions totally unrelated to parliamentary matters, for
example, relations between private societies and their members.
The law relating to qualified privilege is determined by the ordinary
law of defamation of states or territories. Reports of parliamentary
proceedings may also attract the implied freedom of political communication
found by the High Court in the Constitution (Lange v Australian Broadcasting
Commission 1997 189 CLR 520).
The 1987 Act,
however, provides in
section 10 a defence against defamation actions
for all fair and accurate reports of proceedings in the Houses of the
Commonwealth Parliament and their committees.
The privilege attaching to reports of parliamentary proceedings,
including radio and television reports, is further discussed in Chapter 3 on
the publication of proceedings.
Previous Page | Contents | Next Page
Website feedback: web.senate@aph.gov.au
Last reviewed 31 July 2009 by the Senate Web Administrator
© Commonwealth of Australia
Parliament of Australia Web Site Privacy Statement
Images courtesy of AUSPIC
|
