Matter of Privilege

Freedom of Information

The SPEAKER (17:14): I refer to the member for Davenport's matter of privilege earlier today, where he proposed that it is a contempt of parliament where a member of parliament, on making a freedom of information request, is denied access to information that resides on a personal or non-government email account.

The premise of the member for Davenport's proposition is that a member of parliament has a right, as a parliamentarian, to this information. No doubt, the house and all its members are aware that, under the Freedom of Information Act, members of parliament are no more entitled than is any member of the public to a legal right to access documents held by the government when making an application under the Freedom of Information Act. Access to documents held on personal or non-government email accounts are not covered by the Freedom of Information Act.

An FOI request by a member of parliament does not carry with it parliamentary privilege, such as those powers possessed by parliamentary bodies such as committees, to access any document within their jurisdiction. The denial of access to information beyond the ambit of the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act does not amount to a contempt of parliament, as the member of parliament does not possess the requisite privileges to access this information as part of his or her FOI request.

It is a different situation, however, if a parliamentary committee, in carrying out its functions, were to undertake an inquiry and sought information from personal or non-government email accounts. The committee's proceedings would be covered by parliamentary privilege and, as such, any denial of access to information, whether on personal or non-government email accounts, could amount to a contempt of parliament and be treated as a breach of privilege. Accordingly, I am not going to give the matter precedence.