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Ch19 Parliamentary privilege / OTHER PRIVILEGES / Freedom from arrest / House to be informed of the detention of a Member



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House of Representatives                                Ch 19                                                 p 725

 

Parliamentary privilege / OTHER PRIVILEGES / Freedom from arrest

 

House to be informed of the detention of a Member

The committal of a Member for any criminal offence, or in any civil matter, including contempt of court, should be notified to the Speaker by the committing judge or magistrate or some other competent authority. When Mr U ren was committed for 40 days for his failure to pay court costs ( see above ), advice of his imprisonment (and subsequent release) was conveyed to the Speaker and reported to the House at its next sitting.

On 26 February 1980 the Senate agreed to a resolution relating to the right of the Senate to receive notification of the detention of its members. A resolution reaffirming the resolution of February 1980 was agreed to by the Senate on 18 March 1987. The resolution was communicated to the Presiding Officers of the Parliaments of the States, the Attorneys-General of the States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. 1

In 1984 the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Privilege recommended that the court or officer having charge of a detained Member should inform the relevant Presiding Officer but no specific action was taken by the House on this recommendation. 2



See Ch. on ‘The Parliament and the role of the House’.



Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Privilege, Final report , October 1984, PP 219 (1984) 72.