Parliament of Queensland Act 2001

The Act directly affects:

• Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. They receive the benefit of privilege protections under sections 8 and 9, must comply with interest disclosure requirements, and are subject to restrictions on transacting business with State entities.
• Witnesses and persons appearing before Assembly committees. They are compellable under sections 29 to 35 and are protected by parliamentary privilege when giving evidence.
• Government agencies and public servants who must respond to Assembly or committee requests for information and who may be summoned to appear.
• Courts and tribunals. Section 8 limits the scope of their inquiry where Assembly proceedings are relevant. Courts cannot impeach or question proceedings in the Assembly.
• Anti-corruption bodies. The interaction between this Act's privilege provisions and the Crime and Corruption Act 2001 (Qld) determines what the CCC can do with investigation reports and how those reports can be published.
• Parties to civil or criminal proceedings who may seek to rely on or challenge statements made in the Assembly.

Members - financial interest disclosure. Chapter 4 Part 2A requires members to maintain registers of interests. Members must disclose interests that could reasonably be expected to influence them in performing their parliamentary duties. Registers are publicly available.

Members - restrictions on transacting business with the State. Section 70 defines when a member is taken to "transact business" with an entity of the State. Members cannot sit in the Assembly if they transact business with the State in prescribed ways (section 72). Exceptions apply for contracts required under an Act, contracts entered into through listed corporations, and services where no reward is received.

Attendance and production obligations. Persons summoned by the Assembly under section 29 or by an authorised committee under section 31 must comply. A person who refuses to answer a question or produce a document without making an objection under sections 34 to 36 (legal professional privilege, claim of right) commits a contempt. Sections 32 and 33 set out the formal process for requiring compliance.

Publishing conditions. Where the Assembly imposes conditions on the publication of a parliamentary record by an authorised publisher under section 58, publication in breach of those conditions is a contempt under section 58(3).

Non-disclosure obligations. Chapter 4 Part 2A imposes obligations on members to disclose interests that could conflict with their parliamentary duties. Failure to disclose can lead to suspension or expulsion.

Assembly's punitive powers. The Assembly retains inherent power to punish contempts. Section 37 codifies what amounts to contempt. The Assembly may impose penalties including suspension and expulsion of members (sections 44 to 48).

Examination of witnesses. Under section 29, a committee with authorisation may examine a witness under oath or affirmation. The Assembly may compel a person to answer any question or produce any document (section 32). Committees share these powers under section 33.

Tabling outside sittings. Section 59 allows a Minister or the Speaker to give a report to the Clerk for tabling when the Assembly is not sitting. The report is taken to have been tabled on the day it is received by the Clerk, and this is recorded in the next sitting day's Record of Proceedings.

Custody of Assembly documents. The Clerk holds custody of all documents in the possession of the Assembly or a committee (section 61). An instrument requiring access or production must be addressed to the Clerk (section 62). The Clerk may not allow access unless the committee, inquiry, or Assembly (by resolution) has given leave (section 63).

Committee powers. Portfolio committees (Chapter 5 Part 3) have roles in scrutinising legislation, inquiring into the activities of their portfolio area, and reporting to the Assembly. The Committee of the Legislative Assembly has broad management functions, including setting sitting periods, Members' facilities, and parliamentary administration. The Ethics Committee handles complaints about members' conduct.

Contempts of the Assembly are primarily managed through the Assembly's own processes rather than through the criminal law. However, Part 2A of Chapter 3 (sections 69A to 69F) creates criminal offences in relation to activities involving undue influence over members, false or misleading statements to committees, and related conduct.

Section 69D creates an indictable misdemeanour of offering or giving a benefit to a person to influence how the person acts in relation to the Assembly, or to corruptly influence the exercise of a person's functions in the Assembly. The offence requires the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions before proceedings are commenced (section 69E(2)).

More generally, contempt may be punished by the Assembly imposing fines or suspension. There is no fixed monetary penalty scale in the Act for contempt; the Assembly exercises its own judgment.

Tabling outside sittings. A report given to the Clerk under section 59 is taken to have been tabled on the day of receipt by the Clerk. This is then recorded in the Record of Proceedings at the next sitting day.

Registers of interests. Members must submit primary returns within 30 days of being returned as a member, and annual returns thereafter. Chapter 4 Part 2A specifies the content requirements.

Committee inquiries. There is no single prescribed timeline for committee inquiries. The Assembly or committee sets its own timetable. Witnesses given notice of appearance must comply.

Review of decisions. There is no external statutory review mechanism for Assembly decisions. The Assembly's exercise of its own powers (including over contempt) is generally not subject to judicial review, given parliamentary privilege.

Crime and Corruption Act 2001 (Qld). The interaction between sections 8 and 9 of this Act and the reporting obligations under the CC Act was the subject of the High Court's decision in Crime and Corruption Commission v Carne [2023] HCA 28. The Court held that the privilege in section 8 did not prevent the courts from examining whether the October Draft report was a "report" for the purposes of section 69(1)(b) of the CC Act, because the document had not been tabled and the Assembly had not invoked its own privilege over it. The Court also held the document was not an "other report" under the CC Act at all.

Bill of Rights 1688. Section 8(2) expressly ties the protection to Article 9 of the Bill of Rights 1688, as it applied to the Queensland Assembly immediately before the commencement of section 8(1). The Bill of Rights 1688 forms part of Queensland law through the Imperial Acts Application Act 1984 (Qld).

Constitution of Queensland 2001 and Constitution Act 1867 (Qld). These instruments create the Assembly and define its role. The Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 then governs how that constitutional body operates in practice.

Electoral Act 1992 (Qld). Qualifications for membership refer to and interact with electoral legislation.

Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Definitions of "listed corporation" and "non-aligned corporation" in section 70 of the Act use terms from the Corporations Act, which determines whether a member who has an interest in a corporation is subject to the restrictions on transacting business with the State.

Scope of privilege extends beyond the chamber floor. Section 9 is broad. It covers documents "prepared for the purposes of, or incidental to, transacting business of the Assembly or a committee." A document prepared by a public servant for the purpose of being tabled in a committee falls within privilege. But, under section 9(3), if a document was brought into existence for a different purpose and later tabled, the privilege does not apply in relation to the original purpose.

Parliamentary privilege does not extend to preparatory documents created for non-parliamentary purposes. The High Court's reasoning in CCC v Carne clarified that the Commission's draft investigation report, prepared primarily as an investigation report rather than for the purpose of Assembly business, was not automatically protected by privilege under section 8 or within the definition of section 9.

Interest disclosure obligations are ongoing. Members must submit annual returns even when their interests have not changed. Failure to disclose or late disclosure is treated seriously by the Ethics Committee.

Vacation of seat is automatic in some circumstances. Chapter 4 Part 4 provides that a member automatically vacates their seat in specified circumstances (including becoming bankrupt, being convicted of certain offences, or ceasing to be an elector). A member who misses prescribed numbers of consecutive sitting days without leave also vacates their seat.

Authorised committee powers require proper authorisation. A committee cannot exercise the powers to examine witnesses under oath unless it has been properly authorised to do so. Acting outside that authorisation can undermine the admissibility of evidence or the validity of proceedings.

Journalist subpoenas a committee member. A journalist is a party to defamation proceedings and wants to subpoena a Queensland MP who said something in a committee hearing that the journalist claims defames them. Under section 8, the freedom of speech provisions prevent any court from receiving evidence about what the MP said in the committee as the basis of a claim. The publisher cannot subpoena the committee to produce its records as evidence against the MP (who would need to consent to the waiver of privilege for it to be admissible).

CCC seeks to table an investigation report using PCCC. Following the CCC v Carne [2023] HCA 28 decision, an anti-corruption commission can no longer use the PCCC simply as a vehicle to bring a non-s 69 report into the public domain via parliamentary privilege. To have privilege protection for the report, the report must first qualify as the right type of report under the CC Act, and the committee must genuinely direct it be given to the Speaker under a proper authorisation.

Whistleblower gives evidence to committee. A government employee who gives evidence before a portfolio committee about mismanagement in their agency is protected by parliamentary privilege for what they say during that committee proceeding. Their employer cannot discipline them for the content of their evidence (section 37 defines it as a contempt to treat a person adversely because of evidence given to the Assembly or a committee).

Minister tables a report outside a sitting period. A statutory authority's annual report is received by the responsible Minister on a day when the Assembly is not sitting. Under section 59, the Minister may give the report to the Clerk, and the report is taken to have been tabled on the day of receipt. This has the practical effect of satisfying any statutory obligation to table the report by a certain date, even if the Assembly is in recess.