What it does
The Parliamentary Privileges Act 1891 (WA) is the foundational statute that concretely delineates the privileges, immunities and powers exercisable by the Western Australian Parliament, its two Houses (the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly), their members and their committees. Enacted pursuant to the enabling provision in the Constitution Act 1889, the statute performs three core functions.
First, it expressly adopts, with a fixed temporal limit, the privileges, immunities and powers historically enjoyed by the United Kingdom’s House of Commons. Section 1(b) provides that the WA Houses “have and may exercise … to the extent that they are not inconsistent with this Act, the privileges, immunities and powers by custom, statute or otherwise of the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom and its members and committees as at 1 January 1989.” The cut-off date was inserted by the Constitution (Parliamentary Privileges) Amendment Act 2004 s. 7, replacing any earlier ambulatory reference and thereby freezing the common-law position at a point before subsequent UK statutory reforms such as the Defamation Act 1996 (UK). Section 2 reinforces this adoption by making printed copies of the Journals of the House of Commons prima-facie evidence in any inquiry into those privileges.
Second, the Act supplies a series of operational powers and procedures that give practical effect to those privileges. Sections 4–7 empower each House and its duly authorised committees to order the attendance of any person and the production of any paper, book, record or document. The order is formalised by summons (s. 5), which must state the time, place and particular documents required and must be served personally or by leaving a copy at the person’s usual or last-known place of abode. A reasonable sum for expenses must be tendered (s. 5(4)). Members of either House may be ordered to attend without a summons (s. 6). Where a witness objects to answering a question or producing a document on the ground that it is private and does not affect the subject of inquiry, the Presiding Officer or Chairman must report the objection to the House, which then decides whether to excuse compliance or order production (s. 7).