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Ch18 Parliamentary committees / CONDUCT OF INQUIRIES / Obtaining evidence / Evidence from former Members and Senators



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House of Representatives                                Ch 18                                                 p 659

 

Parliamentary committees / CONDUCT OF INQUIRIES / Obtaining evidence

 

Evidence from former Members and Senators

Opinions differ over whether the immunity of Members and Senators from compulsion by the other House extends to former Members and Senators. Odgers asserts that it does not, citing the case of a former Treasurer and a former Prime Minister, no longer Members, being summonsed to appear before a Senate committee in 1994. 1 This question again arose in 2002 during the inquiry by the Senate Select Committee on a Certain Maritime Incident. Legal opinions provided to the committee and advice from the Clerk of House and the Clerk of the Senate did not agree on whether the former Minister for Defence, a former Member of the House, could be compelled to give evidence to the committee relating to his conduct as a Minister and Member. The view of the Clerk of the House was that the immunity probably extended to former Members. 2 The committee accepted the view of the Clerk of the Senate, but decided not to summons the former Minister, stating that it believed the summons would be contested in the courts, incurring expense for the taxpayer and causing delay to the inquiry. 3



Odgers , 11th edn, p. 426 (Senate Select Committee on Certain Foreign Ownership Decisions in relation to the Print Media).



Senate Select Committee on a Certain Maritime Incident, Report, October 2002. The advice and opinions referred to (from B. Walker SC, Professor G. J. Lindell and A. Robertson SC) are included at appendix 2 of the report.



Ibid, p. xv