Matter of Privilege

MATTER OF PRIVILEGE

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (12:25): Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish to raise a matter of privilege in relation to this bill. I ask you to rule whether there is a prima facie case that the minister has misled the parliament. In his second reading explanation on 24 September, the minister makes a statement that Western Australia has tabled amendment bills. In actual fact, the Western Australian parliament voted in May to defeat the bill. So, at the time of making that statement, that was not correct.

This was brought to the attention of the minister in an email on 29 September. There have been a number of sitting days since then for the minister to correct the record, and to my knowledge the minister has not. Also, before the second reading contributions started today, the minister could have corrected the record and he did not. This is an important issue, because it goes to the question of national uniformity, which is part of the central argument for this legislation. You cannot have national uniformity if Western Australia has already defeated the legislation. I therefore ask you, Madam Deputy Speaker, to look at this information I give you and make a ruling.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will refer the information to the Speaker.