Brownlee Gerry: Parliamentary Service Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Brownlee Gerry: Parliamentary Service Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 03 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:12931. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Leader of the House) 
: 
 I move  
That the Parliamentary Service Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time it is my intention to move that the bill be referred to the Electoral Legislation Committee which has been established to consider two other bills that this bill relates to and that the committee be asked to report back on this bill no later than 12 November 2010. For reasons that I will explain later in my speech it is essential that the bill is passed before 1 January 2011. 
This is a short bill that provides a definition for the term “funding entitlements for parliamentary purposes” for the purpose of clarifying the principal duties of the Parliamentary Service in terms of who or what is funded by the Parliamentary Service. This takes the interim definition in the Parliamentary Service (Continuation of Interim Meaning of Funding for Parliamentary Purposes) Act 2009 as the starting point for the proposed permanent definition which will become part of the Parliamentary Service Act 2000. Some new elements are also being proposed in this bill which I will explain in greater detail shortly. 
I think it is worthwhile to remind the House of the history of the interim definition. The Auditor-General’s report on advertising expenditure during the 2005 general election concluded that some of the expenses met by the vote from the Parliamentary Service appropriation were in fact election expenses and should not have been paid by Parliamentary Service. Following the release of the Controller and Auditor-General’s report there was a need to establish and define what “parliamentary purposes” are and in particular what is meant by electioneering when considering communications by members and parliamentary parties. Concern was also expressed that although the Controller and Auditor-General’s report focused on advertising expenditure it had implications for all expenditure under Vote Parliamentary Service appropriations. The Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Act 2006 was subsequently introduced to give clarity to the phrase “funding entitlements for parliamentary purposes”. This is an important term for defining the elements or entitlements that members and parties receive under the Parliamentary Service Act 2000 and the Civil List Act 1979. The definition specifies that publicity is within the scope of funding entitlements for parliamentary purposes unless it includes explicit electioneering—that is publicity material that explicitly seeks votes donations or party membership. 
The interim definition established in the 2000 Act has been subsequently rolled over in 2007 and 2009 in what is currently the Parliamentary Service (Continuation of Interim Meaning of Funding for Parliamentary Purposes) Act 2009. Because the current interim definition expires on 31 December 2010 it is essential that this bill be passed by that date. The interim definition provides a brightline test with very clear guidance about what is prohibited. This is generally considered to be satisfactory because it has stood the test of time. It has been maintained through three interim statutes that have been in place for a number of years. The bill builds on what is the interim definition for reasons of consistency which I shall also explain later in greater detail. It has proven to be administratively practical by the Parliamentary Service since its introduction in 2006. There has not been a need to require major changes in members’ and parties’ practices which would have been a consequence of the Auditor-General’s approach. It is clear about the publicity material that can be funded using parliamentary funds. 
I think it is worth noting at this point that the bill has a number of connections to two electoral bills that have already appeared before the House namely the Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Bill and the Electoral Referendum Bill. As my colleague the Hon Nathan Guy said in the House on 4 May in regard to the Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Bill this is an important bill that has cross-party consensus in developing electoral law. This is also true of this bill and at this time I wish to thank all parties on the Parliamentary Service Commission for their involvement in developing the policies that have led to the preparation of this bill. 
Generally speaking the bill maintains the legislative framework that has been in place since legislation was passed in 2006 and preserves the convention observed by members before 2006 which was that parliamentary publicity entitlements should not be used for electioneering purposes. It is entirely reasonable to treat referenda in the same way as elections as to most people they are very similar activities. The bill does this by establishing a rule to prevent members of Parliament and parliamentary parties from using parliamentary funds for any advertisement that explicitly supports voting for a particular way in a referendum. The other most notable feature of the bill is the rule to prevent MPs and parliamentary parties from using parliamentary funding for any persuasive election publicity during the regulated period of a general election or referendum publicity where a regulated period is imposed in a Government-initiated referendum. Members will have to fund this type of publicity by other means. This provision demonstrates how the Government with the consensus of other parties in this House has used the electoral finance review process to address issues of concern. During 2009 the Government released an issues paper as part of the electoral finance review process that questioned whether the rules were sufficiently clear that Parliamentary Service funding cannot be used for election purposes. 
As I have already observed the Government has openly raised issues relevant to this bill in the electoral finance review and it has been a cooperative process across the House. With the cooperation of other parties on the Parliamentary Service Commission we have sought to develop enduring solutions by building on rules that were enacted in 2006 with an aim of achieving greater clarity. The Parliamentary Service Commission’s work will be picked up by the Electoral Legislation Committee which because it has already considered the electoral bills that this bill is related to is well placed to give prompt consideration to the Parliamentary Service Amendment Bill so it can be passed before the current interim Act expires. I commend this bill to the House.