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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2663 ..


Question put:

That the line "and determined whether each constitutes a contempt of the Legislative Assembly"be agreed to.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

MR SPEAKER

: The question is that the motion, as amended, be agreed to.

MS TUCKER (10.32): I seek leave to move together the two amendments circulated in my name.

Leave granted.

MS TUCKER

: I move:

(1) Insert the following new paragraph:

"(1A) the Select Committee also examine Standing Order 71 (Privilege) with consideration being given to the House of Representatives procedures in relation to privilege matters.".

(2) Paragraph (1), omit the word "unauthorised".

My first amendment proposes that when the Privileges Committee is considering the second part of what we have just decided, which is the question of dissemination of information on ABC Radio, that it does not just look at the question of contempt but also looks at standing order 71, which is the standing order covering privilege, "with consideration being given to the House of Representatives procedures in relation to privilege matters".

Basically this means that, instead of going to a privileges committee, as is required here, you have the opportunity to deal with a matter within the committee where an alleged breach of the process has occurred. According to people I have spoken to, this process works very well in the federal parliament. So this would be a good opportunity for the committee to also look at this question.

My second amendment seeks to omit the word "unauthorised"from paragraph (1). I think the present wording will pre-empt the work of the select committee. We do not know that it was an unauthorised dissemination of information. We know there was dissemination of information but at this point we do not know the wherewithal of that.

Amendments agreed to.

Motion, as amended, agreed to.

Manager, Committees-resignation

MR SPEAKER: Members, I wish to inform the Assembly that Mr Derek Abbott, our Manager of Committees, is leaving Canberra on 19 July. In his earlier days in the Assembly, Mr Abbott was involved with the strategic plan for the secretariat. This was


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