John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, during debate in the Senate on the motion for a reference to the Community Affairs Committee about the Exclusive Brethren, the Acting Deputy President Senator Carol Brown undertook to refer to me a point of order raised by Senator Bob Brown. He asked that I give a ruling on the accuracy of a statement by Senator Abetz, who refused leave for Senator Milne to incorporate a document, said to be a previously circulated letter to the Prime Minister, in Hansard. Senator Abetz stated:

But by giving leave, every senator in this place would be vouching for that information and allowing it to have privilege.

It is clear that, by granting leave to incorporate a document in Hansard, every individual senator does not vouch for the information in the document. While the publication of a document by the Senate, including by allowing its incorporation in Hansard, is protected by parliamentary privilege, the composition, content and any previous publication of the document is not protected by parliamentary privilege. The composition and content of a document is protected only where the document is composed for the purpose of submission to a house or a parliamentary committee. This is made clear by section 16(2) of the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987.