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House of Representatives                                Ch 18                                                 p 695

Procedures at hearings

Hearings are normally held in public but at the committee’s discretion they may be held in private. The authority to conduct public hearings is contained in standing order 235(a), which provides that a committee or a subcommittee may conduct proceedings by hearing witnesses, either in public or in private. This authorisation is reflected in the standing order which provides that a committee or subcommittee may admit visitors when it is examining a witness or gathering information in other proceedings. ¹ Hearings are frequently attended by the general public and by media representatives. It is standard practice for the committee secretariat to notify the media in advance of proposed hearings and to advise individuals or organisations who have asked to be informed.

The chair or presiding member may open a hearing with a brief statement of its purpose and background, and may also outline the procedures to be followed by the committee. The first witness or witnesses are called to the table and may be required to swear an oath or make an affirmation ( see p. 668). The witness then sits at the table and is usually asked to state his or her full name and the capacity in which he or she is appearing before the committee, the part the witness played in preparation of the submission on which the examination is occurring, and whether the witness wishes to propose any amendment to the submission ( see p. 666). Before questions are put by committee members, it is usual for the chair to invite the witness to make a short statement to the committee.

The examination of witnesses before a committee or a subcommittee is conducted according to the procedure agreed on by the committee. ² While procedures vary to some extent between committees, all operate on the principle that questions are asked and answered through the chair and in an orderly manner. All members should be given an equal opportunity to put questions to a witness. Questions put to witnesses are normally substantially focussed on the witnesses’ written submissions, but it is considered that committees are not confined to questioning witnesses only about matters raised in their submissions.

A member of the committee or a witness may object to a question, in which case the chair decides whether the witness should answer. If there is any dissent by a Member from the chair’s decision, the chair may suspend the public hearing and have the witness (and other visitors) leave while the committee determines the matter in private, by vote if necessary. The committee may insist on the question being answered ( see p. 652).

In 1989 the Standing Committee on Procedure proposed the adoption of the following provisions to be observed by committees of the House:

The Chair of a committee shall take care to ensure that all questions put to witnesses are relevant to the committee’s inquiry and that the information sought by those questions is necessary for the purpose of that inquiry.

Where a witness objects to answering any question put to him or her on any ground, including the grounds that it is not relevant, or that it may tend to incriminate him or her, he or she shall be invited to state the ground upon which he or she objects to answering the question. The committee may then consider, in camera, whether it will insist upon an answer to the question, having regard to the relevance of the question to the committee’s inquiry and the importance to the inquiry of the information sought by the question. If the committee determines that it requires an answer to the question, the witness shall be informed of that determination, and of the reasons for it, and shall be required to answer the question in camera, unless the committee resolves that it is essential that it be answered in public. Where a witness declines to answer a question to which a committee has required an answer, the committee may report the facts to the House.

Other parts of the proposed provisions are quoted elsewhere in this chapter, although three particular provisions should be noted here:

A witness shall be given notice of a meeting at which he or she is to appear, and shall be supplied with a copy of the committee’s terms of reference and an indication of the matters expected to be dealt with during the appearance. Where appropriate a witness may be supplied with a transcript of relevant evidence already taken in public.

A witness may be given the opportunity to make a submission in writing before appearing to give oral evidence.

A witness shall be given reasonable access to any documents or records that the witness has produced to a committee. ³

The Procedure Committee repeated its recommendation for a resolution containing the above provisions in its 1998 report on the House committee system, ⁴ with the additional provision that:

Witnesses shall be treated with respect and dignity at all times.

However, the proposed resolution for dealing with witnesses was not put to the House when other matters recommended in the report were debated and agreed to, the Leader of the House commenting that, while the Government supported the recommendation in principle, ‘fixing those guidelines in a resolution may attract issues of arguments and interpretation over committee procedure, adding to the time and cost of inquiries and distracting from the business of the committee’. ⁵

During a hearing a witness may be asked to provide information or a document which is not immediately available. In such cases the witness may be asked or may volunteer to provide the information later in writing or, less often, at a subsequent hearing.

No person other than a member of the committee may question a witness during examination. No witness may question a member or any other person present, but a witness may ask for clarification of a question. In 1971 the Speaker made a private ruling that (like committee staff) specialist advisers must not be permitted to question witnesses, comment on the evidence or otherwise intervene directly in formal proceedings at a public hearing.

Documents provided to a committee, including maps, diagrams, or other illustrated and written material, are normally included in the committee’s records as exhibits ( see p. 665). Where it is necessary to incorporate material in the transcript and there is no objection to this course, the chair usually so orders, although modern practice is that the transcript is regarded as a record of oral evidence only, and the incorporation of material is kept at a minimum. Hansard prepares a written transcript of evidence taken at hearings. Witnesses are given an opportunity to make corrections to the transcript. However, suggested amendments are acceptable only insofar as they provide a true record of what the witness said; the meaning cannot be changed.

It is customary at the conclusion of public hearings for motions to be passed authorising the publication of the evidence taken ( see p. 676), thus conferring privilege on the publication of the transcript. Witnesses may request that their evidence be taken in private and that documents submitted be treated as confidential. Such requests are usually but not necessarily granted ( see p. 677).

S.O. 240.

S.O. 255(d).

Committee procedures for dealing with witnesses, PP 100 (1989).

Standing Committee on Procedure, Ten years on: A review of the House of Representatives committee system , May 1998. PP 91 (1998).

H.R. Deb. (3.12.98) 1302.