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Hansard
- Start of Business
- PRIVILEGE
- QUESTION
- QUESTION
- PAPERS
- QUESTION
- QUESTION
- QUESTION
- QUESTION
- QUESTION
- QUESTION
- AUSTRALIAN WOOL BOARD
- QUESTION
- QUESTION
- ACCOMMODATION OF PASTORAL WORKERS
- QUESTION
- QUESTION
- QUESTION
- QUESTION
- BILLS RETURNED FROM THE SENATE
- ASSENT TO BILLS
- POSTPONEMENT OF ORDERS OF THE DAY
- NATIONAL OIL PROPRIETARY LIMITED AGREEMENT BILL 1937
- GENERAL ELECTIONS
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NATIONAL OIL PROPRIETARY LIMITED AGREEMENT BILL
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Second Reading
- BLAIN, Adair
- DEPUTY SPEAKER, Mr
- PARKHILL, Robert
- Division
- Division
- PARKHILL, Robert
- BLACKBURN, Maurice
- Division
- ROSEVEAR, John
- PARKHILL, Robert
- ROSEVEAR, John
- PARKHILL, Robert
- BLACKBURN, Maurice
- MCEWEN, John
- CAMERON, Archie
- NAIRN, Walter
- CAMERON, Archie
- PARKHILL, Robert
- BLACKBURN, Maurice
- GULLETT, Henry
- CHAIRMAN, The
- BRENNAN, Frank
- MENZIES, Robert
- Division
- BLACKBURN, Maurice
- CAMERON, Archie
- BEASLEY, John
- BEASLEY, John
- LAWSON, John
- MCEWEN, John
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Second Reading
- SUPERANNUATION BILL 1937
- AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS' REPATRIATION BILL (No. 2) 1937
- WAR SERVICE HOMES BILL 1937
- HIGH COMMISSIONER BILL 1937
- SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY RESEARCH BILL 1937
- STATES GRANTS (FERTILIZER) BILL 1937
- DEFENCE EQUIPMENT BILL 1937
- CUSTOMS TARIFF VALIDATION BILL 1937
- CUSTOMS TARIFF (EXCHANGE ADJUSTMENT) VALIDATION BILL 1937
- CUSTOMS TARIFF (CANADIAN PREFERENCE) VALIDATION BILL 1937
- EXCISE TARIFF VALIDATION BILL 1937
- PAPUA AND NEW GUINEA BOUNTIES BILL 1937
- APPLE AND PEAR BOUNTY BILL 1937
- STATES GRANTS (YOUTH EMPLOYMENT) BILL 1937
- CITRUS FRUITS BOUNTY BILL 1937
- DAIRY PRODUCE EXPORT CONTROL BILL 1937
- DRIED FRUITS EXPORT CONTROL BILL 1937
- ADJOURNMENT
- ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
Statements in Parliament: Opinion of Attorney-General.
Mr.FORDE (Capricornia) [10.30]. - I rise to address myself to a matter of privilege, and shall conclude with a motion. I take this course because the privileges of the members of this Parliament have been seriously threatened in a statement published in the press by the right honorable the Attorney-General (Mr. Menzies). That statement contains the threat that Court proceedings may be instituted against honorable members who exercise their right of freedom of speech in this Parliament. It was published in all the principal newspapers of Australia on Saturday last, the 11th September. In it, the right honorable gentleman is reported to have said -
Some drastic changes would have to be made in the law relating to parliamentary privilege. His own ideas, whichhad been forming themselves in his mind for years past, were that -
(1) When a Member of Parliament made an offensive statement and subsequently withdrew it, the offensive statement should not be recorded in Hansard, and its publication in the press should be prohibited;
(2) That where an offensive statement was made and upon challenge was not withdrawn, no parliamentary privilege should attach either to the making of the statement in Parliament or to its publication in the press.
That opinion was expressed not by any irresponsible member of this Parliament but by the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth. It purports to give expression to the ideas that he holds after the most mature consideration and years of thought. In my opinion, it constitutes a definite threat against the privilege of Parliament by a responsible Minister of the Crown. Furthermore, so long as that threat exists, some honorable members may feel that they will be under a cloud if they discharge what they consider is their duty, namely, to express themselves in Parliament on matters of grave importance to the people of Australia. This is a subject into which we should not introduce party political bias; it transcends party politics. We should be prepared to consider it quite apart from anything that happened in this House last week or in any of the preceding weeks in the history of this Parliament.
The statement of the right honorable gentleman is a reflection upon honorable members of this House, and consequently is an example of breach of privilege. It has caused grave concern not only to honorable members on all sides of this House, but also to some of the most important newspapers of Australia, which are conducted not by the Labour party but by friends of the Government. In to-day's Canberra Times, the proprietor of which was a Nationalist member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales for many years, appears the followingcomment in a leading article: -
To enter politics and to have been connected with a scries of political blunders may be the unfortunate lot of any Cabinet Minister who finds himself bound to accept some of the blame for actions of his colleagues unless he resigns from the Cabinet. But the failure of Mr. Menzies to measure up to expectations does not proceed from that alone, but from the development of on attitude foreign to that expected of upholders ofBritish institutions. Within the last few days the public has had an admission of this from his own lips. He has declared his discontent with parliamentary privilege. This is not apparently a sudden decision, but one which has been formed in his mind for some time past. It is suggestive of the dictatorial mind, which is impatient of every bulwark of liberty of speech or of opinion. It is the chrysaloid stage of fascism - the stage at which fascist tendencies must be checked, lest they occasion actual public harm.
Probably the most important newspaper in Victoria - the Melbourne Age - in its editorial to-dayhas published the following
It is admitted that the privilege of Parliament with respect to freedom of speech if sometimes abused, but the whole issue goes deeper than the infrequent licence of a few members. Abolition of the privilege would inevitably lead to greater abuses of a much more serious nature, which would violate the r ights of democracy. Freedom of speech without fear of penalty in the form of fine or imprisonment is the priceless privilege that hasbeen fought for by those Englishmen who handed down to us our parliamentary institutions and our democratic system of government,
