Matter of Privilege

Matter of Privilege

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:53): I rise to bring to the attention of the house a matter of privilege. Yesterday, on the parliament's resumption, a statement was provided to the house by the Speaker about his reasoning for conducting an inquiry into the alleged conduct of the member for Waite. In the course of that statement, the Speaker made the following remarks:

I wish to advise the house that on becoming aware of allegations concerning alleged inappropriate conduct by the member for Waite within the parliamentary precinct, I have engaged an independent investigator to inquire into the alleged behaviour.

It has come to my attention that those remarks from the Speaker are incorrect. The Speaker has provided comments to a news outlet InDaily for an article published at the beginning of January. In those remarks, the Speaker advised that news outlet:

Near the end of December I was made aware of allegations concerning the conduct of a Member of the House of Assembly towards other people, including a Member of the Legislative Council, at a Christmas function held in Parliament House. On becoming aware of the allegations, I arranged for preliminary inquiries to be undertaken to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the alleged inappropriate behaviour.

It is clear from these two conflicting statements that the Speaker learnt of the allegations against the member for Waite, according to his own words as quoted in this news outlet's article, in late December. From what the Speaker told this house yesterday, he did not convene or procure an independent inquiry into the conduct of the member for Waite until several weeks later on 17 January.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the remarks by the Speaker yesterday in this place were clearly inaccurate, based on those two conflicting statements. It is an important point, as you can appreciate, because it is of great public concern and great interest, not just to the opposition but to the public more broadly, that we are given accurate information about what happened not just on 13 December but in the process following 13 December, particularly as it relates to the actions of the Speaker.

I ask that you, sir, consider this matter. I have the papers for you and I will provide them to you because it would be very difficult for the Speaker to consider a matter of privilege that concerns comments that he himself made to this place.

The SPEAKER: I obviously came in halfway through or towards the end of that statement, so one moment. I ask the member for Lee to provide all the relevant information and I may well, in fact, delegate that to the Deputy Speaker, if I caught the back of the statement correctly.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I am more than happy to provide the information. I have it here, but could I just, for my benefit and the house's benefit, understand who will be considering this matter. Will it be you or the Deputy Speaker?

The SPEAKER: As I said, I literally walked in towards the back end of the statement, but if it is a matter of privilege on something that allegedly I am responsible for, of course I will delegate that to the Deputy Speaker.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you, sir.