Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you Mr Speaker and my thanks to the chair of the Privileges Committee the Hon David Parker for the well-traversed explanation of what happened and the process we went through. I just want to add a couple more points.The first is that we found this a troubling matter to deal with as a committee for obvious reasons. We were placed in the invidious position of essentially being asked to find facts and we considered right at the start of our inquiry how to do that. There were basically two options: one was to ask an independent investigator to do that for us which is the path we went down and the other option was to get the relevant member concerned before the committee ask other members who were there and most particularly because of the somewhat unusual nature of the alleged offending also get the relevant staff to submit to the committee. We pondered whether or not that would be a good idea and I think we made the appropriate decision that it would be unfair on the staff who at the end of the day don't come to work to get involved in political events as inevitably would happen before a public committee of the Parliament—the so-called highest court in the land. The prefix powerful" is always appended to the Privileges Committee and so we felt like that wasn't going to be an appropriate thing to do. So we asked Wendy Aldred a barrister of some renown to find the facts for us and I commend her work which was done very quickly actually. There was quite a desire from members to deal with this quickly and as expeditiously as possible and Ms Aldred provided us with a fairly comprehensive report.Having received that report the next question was: what to do? Basically we just applied the facts as had been presented to us by the independent reviewer to the relevant Standing Orders as the chair has gone through. In doing so—and this is the second point I wanted to mention—we were very cognisant of the ability to have robust debate and criticism in this Parliament. I like to play hard but fair; I enjoy the cut and thrust of debate and I give as good as I get and all of that. And I think it's important that we maintain that privilege. That in itself is actually a parliamentary privilege: freedom of speech. I would never want to see this debating chamber and indeed this Parliament become a sterile place of non-debate. But there is a line and the line is that the conduct of the member concerned with this committee—and the Standing Orders are very clear that impeding another member in the course of their duty is a contempt of Parliament. We found as a committee that that is what had happened with the assistance of Wendy Aldred barrister and we applied the facts to the law. That is what we have concluded.I'd also make a final point which is that we were also conscious of upholding Parliament as a good place to work as well—of being a place that staff and members of Parliament and all who work in this very important building feel safe at work in. The question before the committee was: if this wasn't contempt of Parliament what is? Our view was that to maintain the integrity of the Privileges Committee and maintain the integrity of Parliament it is important that behaviour that Mr van de Molen accepts was inappropriate and wrong—it's important that those facts are laid out cleanly and clearly for all to see and appropriate sanction is meted out. So we considered very carefully the issue of apology versus censure. I think if you think about the other cases we've dealt with in the last few weeks—the issue of Mr Wood and Mr Court—they can be fairly distinguished from this case. Mr Wood and others have been asked to apologise and they've done that. This case is the next rung above and therefore our recommendation is Mr van de Molen be censured. We endorse that. It's a troubling matter. But ultimately Mr Speaker you referred the matter appropriately to us and we've acted in a very collegial and bipartisan and consensual manner and I think done the right thing in this instance. Thank you Mr Speaker."