Senator ROBERT RAY (4:20 PM) —I present the 119th report of the Committee of Privileges entitled Possible false or misleading evidence before the Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Legislation Committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

Senator ROBERT RAY —I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the report.

Leave granted.

Senator ROBERT RAY —I move:

On 24 March 2004, on the motion of Senator Mackay, the Senate referred to the Committee of Privileges the following matter:

This matter arose from the evidence given by officers of Telstra at additional estimates hearings on 16 February 2004. Some weeks later a document was tabled in the House of Representatives which was claimed to be an internal Telstra briefing about the state of the network. On the basis of apparent contradictions between the evidence and the briefing, Senator Mackay raised this as a matter of privilege and the President granted it precedence.

The committee received further material from Senator Mackay and provided details of allegations to the Telstra officers concerned, who submitted a joint response to the committee. The Telstra officers provided the committee with a substantial and detailed explanation, which sought to distinguish the evidence they had given at the estimates hearing from the circumstances covered by the internal Telstra briefing. In accordance with its usual practice, the committee provided a copy of the response to Senator Mackay and invited further comment.

Having received further comment and having analysed all of the material before it, the committee applied the criteria in privilege resolution 3, which, amongst other things, requires that it takes into account whether a person who committed an act which may be a contempt did so knowingly. The committee was unable to conclude that the officers had knowingly misled the legislation committee and agreed that no contempt should be found.

Unfortunately, this is not the first allegation of misleading evidence investigated by the committee, nor is it the first time that officers of Telstra have been the subject of an inquiry of this nature. Some time ago, after investigating a number of these cases, the committee arranged for a reminder to be given to witnesses appearing before Senate committees and joint committees administered by the Senate that false or misleading evidence may constitute a contempt of the Senate. Concerned at the apparently widespread ignorance of parliamentary privilege within the Public Service, the committee recommended, and the Senate resolved, that senior public servants should study parliamentary principles to avoid committing offences through ignorance. The committee included a requirement of all departments and agencies to report on their compliance with the resolution. The committee reported on the outcome of the resolution in its 89th report.

In concluding its examination of this case the Committee of Privileges is recommending that Telstra, an organisation that appears frequently before Senate committees, be required to report to the Senate on measures it has taken to ensure that its senior officers are appropriately trained in their obligations to parliament. I commend the report to the Senate and seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.