Chapter
2 - Parliamentary Privilege: immunities and powers of the Senate
Contempts and
criminal offences
Some contempts are also
criminal offences, and there is nothing to prevent proceedings for contempt being
undertaken before, during or after criminal proceedings for the same acts. This
has not happened, however, and is unlikely to occur in practice, because the
Senate would be likely either to choose between contempt proceedings and a
prosecution in the courts or to refrain from employing its contempt
jurisdiction if a prosecution is in the offing or in train.
Conversely, an act which has been dealt with as a contempt could also
be prosecuted as a criminal offence (cf US
v Traficant, US Court of Appeals, 19/5/2004,
not reported; Supreme Court declined to hear appeal, 10/1/2005).
In 1997 the Senate had occasion to consider whether it should
investigate a possible contempt by a senator, the making of allegedly false statements
to the Senate, while police were investigating the subject matter of those
statements. The senator’s statements could not be the subject of court
proceedings because they were protected by parliamentary privilege. Nonetheless
the Senate, while referring the statements to the Privileges Committee,
determined that the committee’s inquiry should not begin until after the
conclusion of the police investigations and any consequent legal proceedings (7/5/1997, J.1855-6).
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