Mr McCLELLAND —Mr Speaker, I have a question for you. I refer to yesterday's resolution by the House regarding the right of reply of persons referred to in the House. Have you received any correspondence complaining of a misuse of parliamentary privilege; and, if so, given that yesterday's resolution will have prospective rather than retrospective effect, will you table any such correspondence which you have received?

Mr SPEAKER —I thank the honourable member for Barton for his question. I did have some indication that the honourable member proposed to raise this matter, and I thank him for his courtesy in so advising me.

There are certainly records of approaches by, or on behalf of, persons concerned about criticism or claims made about them in the House during my period as Speaker and before. I am also sure that many members would have received approaches from persons complaining about statements made in the House. I listened with interest yesterday to the comments made by the Leader of the House and the Leader of Opposition Business about the right of reply procedure, and I noted their comments that the new procedure was not intended to have any retrospective effect.

While I understand the concern of the honourable member for Barton, I am not convinced that the various and, no doubt, incomplete records that are available on these matters should be tabled. It has always been open to a person concerned about a statement made in the House either to approach the member who has made the statement or, far more usually, to approach another member and ask that member to place their rebuttal on the record. Members have always been able to do this without necessarily adopting the views of the person complaining to them.

It still remains open to any member to place a denial or explanation on the parliamentary record by reading out the details provided by the person concerned. The ability of members to do this is not affected by the passage of the right of reply resolution; and there is no reason why members cannot place denials on the record if they wish to, even if the original accusation or claim is somewhat dated. To this extent, retrospectivity is not an issue.