Finlayson Christopher: Privilege — Consideration of Report of Privileges Committee Question of Privilege Regarding Use of Intrusive Powers Within the Parliamentary PrecinctText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFinlayson Christopher: Privilege — Consideration of Report of Privileges Committee Question of Privilege Regarding Use of Intrusive Powers Within the Parliamentary Precinct[Sitting date: 22 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19325. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General):I move That the House take note of the report of the Privileges Committee on the question of privilege regarding the use of intrusive powers within the parliamentary precinct and that the protocol for release of information from parliamentary information and security systems be adopted and brought into effect at a time to be determined by the Speaker. I do not think I need spend too much time on this excellent report given that we have previously debated the first part of the Privileges Committee’s report into a question of privilege arising from the use of intrusive powers within the parliamentary precinct. I remind the House that in the first report the committee’s function was not necessarily to apportion blame for the release of various information in a way that seemed to us on the committee to be haphazard and somewhat ad hoc. Rather it was to try to gain a clear understanding of the facts in that situation—what information was managed by the Parliamentary Service in whose interests how it came it be disclosed and what procedures were in place to prevent its misuse. So what this report does is focus on where to from here. It sets out a number of principles for the release of information held by the Parliamentary Service.As the Attorney-General I have a particular interest in the matter of privilege as it relates to the separation of powers. I am a member of Parliament but I am also a member of the executive and have the Attorney-General’s role as protector of the judiciary. To that we can now add that in my work as chair of this committee I have continued the Attorney-General’s ancient role as defender of the fourth estate and of the important work the media does in bringing transparency and accountability to the proceedings of our democracy. I say this of course without any inference that the media should reciprocate this affection while I am out campaigning in the closely fought battle for the marginal seat of Rongotai.After the preliminary comments we come to the heart of the report which is part 3 on page 10. That report sets out four key principles regarding information on the parliamentary server. They are these—and it is very important to spell them out. Firstly: “There should be a presumption that information held on parliamentary information and security systems should not be released.” Secondly: “Individual members should retain complete control over the release of any information that relates to them. That is material relating to individual members should only be released where that member specifically agrees to its release.”The third key principle related to journalists: “Journalists working in the parliamentary precinct should retain complete control over the release of any information that relates to them. That is material relating to a journalist or group of journalists who work in the parliamentary precinct should” be covered. And I reiterate this important point because it was lost sight of in the eagerness to investigate the suspected leak last year so it is a very important principle. We must whether we are members of the executive or members of this House remember at all times that we have a press gallery in Parliament so that they can keep an eye on us not so that we can keep an eye on them. The final principle is: “For information requests that do not relate to an individual member the Speaker of the House of Representatives should be the ultimate decision-maker.” We had quite a lengthy discussion about the role of the Speaker in determining these important matters.So these principles are of course not necessarily absolute. Ministers have extensive and necessary obligations to disclose official information—for example in response to requests under the Official Information Act—but what the principles do is form the basis of the protocol for the release of information from the parliamentary information communications and the security systems. A key part of the protocol is that no distinction should necessarily be made on the supposed nature of the information. A lot of energy was expended by parties over the course of the original investigation giving rise to this report and in our subsequent inquiry trying to parse the fine distinctions between data and metadata. So the protocol which is appended to the report—and I acknowledge the tremendous help of the Clerk of the House in getting to this stage—I hope will be accepted by the House and will be able to come into force just as soon as possible because I do think it clarifies what turned out to be an utterly unsatisfactory situation and as I say we investigated the facts very closely in our first report.I think that is all I need necessarily say about the protocol. There was a second recommendation which I need not spend a lot of time on. The second one was that we recommend that the Government update the Cabinet Manual to reflect that where an inquiry is established under the Inquiries Act the exercise of powers in relation to members of Parliament and the parliamentary agencies will require recognition of parliamentary privilege and that the Government develop some standard terms of reference for use in any inquiry when it seems or appears that powers may be exercised in relation to members and the parliamentary agencies. I think we need that given that there will from time to time be inquiries set up under the Inquiries Act 2013 and we do not want to get into the unhappy situation that we found ourselves in in 2012-13.I thank all the members who served on the committee. I think we have reached a very good place and everyone worked very hard on the report not just for members of Parliament but for members of the press gallery so that we have got some clarity going forward.