Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As deputy chair of the Privileges Committee, I want to just indicate support for Senator Collins's statement. I make no reference to the contribution that the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate just made. She cannot help herself in trying to score political points out of everything.

This is a committee that works very well in the interests of the parliament and the Senate. I congratulate Senator Collins—as I have done privately to her and in the committee meetings—on the way she chairs this committee in quite an exemplary way. There is no politics in this committee. It is disappointing that the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate comes in and tried to make political points in talking about this otherwise very sensible, very appropriate and very tripartisan report of the committee.

This report relates to a very serious matter. It relates to matters not just of this parliament but of future parliaments. Under Senator Collins's leadership, we are trying to assess some other aspects of the whole issue, which may be useful in the future. The report deals very fairly with the discussions of the committee, which, as I say, have been very extensive discussions. We have had a lot of very good advice from the clerk assisting us, Mr Pye, who I guess will not be with us anymore after his elevation. Is that right? That is probably a shame. Also, we have had very good sound advice, as always, from the Clerk of the Senate on matters we should look at.

Some of what Senator Wong said in her contribution on background is very relevant, and it is about senators and members being able to do their duty without fear or favour. But there are other questions involved. Should parliamentarians be dealing with stolen documents? I am not for a moment suggesting that in this case the documents were stolen, but clearly that is an issue we have to look at. It is also a very interesting case, and I think Senator Collins may have mentioned this: where the same sort of set of circumstances arises in both the House of Representatives and the Senate what is the conflict of powers between the Senate and the House of Representatives? That is something that the Clerk has given only a little thought to at this stage but which she will have to give some more thought to. I do recall the Clerk's advice. They are issues which do need to be addressed. Some of the issues involved happened in this building, but some others involving a member of the Senate happened in an electorate office outside of this building, in another town. So they are all interesting questions, and the further inquiry that the Senate has agreed to do, on the suggestion of the chairman and the committee, will look at some of these issues.

I am pleased that the committee has decided at this stage not to follow the report or the conclusions of the House of Representatives committee, which I might add just as an aside, apropos of absolutely nothing, is a committee with a government majority in the House of Representatives. I only mention that to say that these are issues which are beyond the political realm; they are issues that really are for the good of parliament and of the people who serve in the parliament, to ensure that they can serve without any restrictions.

But there are some issues that I mentioned to do with stolen documents. Again, I am not suggesting that these are stolen; that is not our role. They are issues that have to be looked at. There are also a couple of other quite technical issues. Again, my purpose in speaking today is to indicate that the coalition members on the committee also support the comments made by Senator Collins and, of course, this report, to which we are all signatories.

Question agreed to.