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Chapter 16 - Committees
Power to call for persons and documents
Legislative and general
purpose standing committees and most select committees possess the full range
of inquiry powers, enabling them, if necessary, to summon witnesses and order
the production of documents. A person failing to comply with a lawful order of
a committee to this effect may be found to be in contempt of the Senate and, in
accordance with section 7 of the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987,
subject to a penalty of up to six months’ imprisonment or a fine not exceeding
$5 000 for a natural person or $25 000 for a corporation. While
committees have power to send for persons and documents, they do not have power
to deal with the consequences of a failure to comply with such an order. The
committee’s role ends with reporting the matter to the Senate to deal with the
possible contempt. For a detailed discussion of how the Senate deals with such
matters, see Chapter 2, Parliamentary Privilege.
The power of the Senate and its committees to compel the
attendance of witnesses, the giving of evidence and the production of documents
is virtually unlimited, subject to some possible qualifications. As discussed
in Chapter 2 and Chapter 17, there is probably an implicit limitation on the
power of the Senate to summon members of the other House or of a state
or territory legislature, and this limitation may extend also to all state
officers. It may also be held
that the investigatory power
of committees is limited to matters within Commonwealth legislative power as
delineated by the Constitution. These possible limitations have not been
adjudicated. These aside, the extent of the power has been frequently restated
although the power itself has been seldom used (see, for example, the 49th
report of the Committee of Privileges, PP 171/1994).
Major consideration of the extent of the powers of the Senate and its
committees to compel evidence occurred in relation to the efforts of two select
committees in 1993 and 1994. The Select Committee on
the Functions, Powers and Operation of the Australian Loan Council reported to
the Senate in its second report in September 1993 that it had met with
“considerable resistance on the part of some prospective witnesses” (Second
Report, PP 153/1993, p. 1). There followed a list of members of state
parliaments who had declined invitations to appear before the committee. The
Treasurer, a member of the House of Representatives, had also declined an
invitation. The committee had earlier received advice from the Clerk of the Senate
that it could not summon as witnesses members of the House of Representatives
and of the houses of state parliaments. In its second report, the committee
recommended that the Senate request the various houses to require the
attendance of their members before the committee to give evidence. A resolution
was agreed to but the requests were declined (see Chapter 17, Witnesses, under
Members or officers of other Houses).
The Select
Committee on Foreign Ownership Decisions in Relation to the Print Media was
established on 9 December 1993 to examine government decisions in 1991 and 1993 in
relation to the percentage of foreign ownership of newspapers, and the role of
the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB). In pursuing its inquiry the
committee encountered government claims of public interest
immunity, formerly known as executive or crown privilege. (For the major
discussion of this topic, see Chapter 19, Relations with the Executive
Government, under Claims by the executive of public interest immunity.) The
Treasurer refused to release key documents prepared by FIRB and also issued
directions to certain current and former FIRB officers not to give information
to the committee about the 1991 and 1993 decisions. The committee
issued a former Prime Minister and a former Treasurer with summonses to appear;
another former Treasurer responded to an invitation to appear and the former
Prime Minister appeared a second time at his own request. The documents were
not produced to the committee.
The use by
committees of inquiry powers through the issuing of a summons for a person to
appear or a document to be produced is the exception rather than the rule.
Committees usually invite witnesses to attend and give evidence, and witnesses
usually attend voluntarily. Resolution 1 of the Senate’s Privilege Resolutions
of 1988 require committees
to proceed by way of invitation unless circumstances warrant otherwise.
It would not be fair for a witness who appears voluntarily by
invitation to be required to answer a question; only witnesses under summons
should be so required. In 1971 when a witness appearing voluntarily before the Select Committee on
Securities and Exchange declined to answer a question, the witness was
subsequently summoned to appear and then required to answer the question.
The Senate may
order particular witnesses to appear before committees (7/2/1995, J.2895-7; 6/6/1995, J.3364-5; 22/10/1997, J.2673; 21/10/1999, J.1966; 10/4/2000, J.2582-3, 2585; 28/11/2000, J.3594-5; 19/6/2001, J.4322; 12/3/2002, J.154-6; 25/11/2003, J.2709-10).
The procedures contained in Privilege Resolution 1 for the protection
of witnesses are analysed in Chapter 17, Witnesses.
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