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Ch19 Parliamentary privilege / THE COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTS PRIVILEGE POWERS / Statutory provisions



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House of Representatives                                Ch 19                                                 p 708

 

Parliamentary privilege / THE COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENT’S PRIVILEGE POWERS

 

Statutory provisions

The Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987 is an enactment under the head of power constituted by section 49. It provides that, except to the extent that the Act expressly provides otherwise, the powers, privileges and immunities of each House, and of the Members and the committees of each House, as in force under section 49 of the Constitution immediately before the commencement of the Act, continue in force. The provisions of the Act are described in detail in this chapter.

In addition, the Parliament has enacted a number of other laws in connection with some specific aspects of its operations, 1 although it has been said that certain of these may be ‘more properly . . . referred’ to section 51(xxxix) of the Constitution, which deals with the power to make laws with respect to matters which are incidental to the execution of any power vested, inter alia, in the Parliament or either House. 2



E.g. Parliamentary Papers Act 1908; Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act 1946; Public Accounts and Audit Committee Act 1951; Public Works Committee Act 1969 and legislation making provisions in relation to certain committees.



R v. Richards; ex parte Fitzpatrick and Browne (1955) 92 CLR 168. And see comments by Professor Enid Campbell, Parliamentary Privilege, Federation Press, 2003, p. 235.