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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1295 ..

MR SPEAKER (continuing):

report unless the Assembly were to authorise it for publication. The advice received concluded that comments in the dissent to the report may be defamatory, though this was not certain, and there were significant doubts as to whether or not they were actionable and whether any legal action could be sustained.

In light of the advice received and in accordance with the provisions of Assembly standing order 212, I authorised provision of copies of the report to the departments involved in preparing the government's response to the reports and also to those persons who made submissions to the inquiry. I asked that particular advice as to the status of copies of the report be provided to recipients.

I do not propose to authorise wider publication of the report, although it is open to the Assembly itself to authorise publication of the report should it see fit. The privilege would then apply to the publication of the whole document.

The second matter that I wish to address is the request made by Mr Humphries during proceedings that I consider the content of the dissent. Mr Humphries expressed concern following Mr Hargreaves' withdrawal of remarks made in debate and his statement that he did not withdraw his comments from the dissenting report.

I do not believe that there is anything that I, as Speaker, can do on this issue. Practice in the Senate and the House of Representatives has been reviewed. Similar issues have arisen where, for example, senators have taken exception to the comments made in committee reports or dissenting reports concerning the actions of senators. These matters are regarded as matters for contention in debate and are treated accordingly. They are not regarded as questions of order for the chair to deal with.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, I seek leave to move a motion authorising publication of the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety report No 9 relating to the draft budget for the Department of Justice and Community Safety and related agencies.

Leave granted.

MR BERRY: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I move:

Mr Speaker, I was somewhat troubled by the hiccup, if I can describe it as that, which prevented the broad distribution of this important report. I am surprised that the government, because of its much-vaunted commitment to openness, did not beat me to the jump here and ensure that this report gained a wide circulation. I would hate to see this report lost in the hurly-burly of debate in this place.

Mr Speaker, my understanding is that there were some concerns about a couple of comments in this report and I note that you have said that there was some suggestion that they might have been defamatory, that you had taken legal advice and that was by no means certain.

MR SPEAKER: Correct.

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