| Related Orders, Precedents and Rulings |
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| S.O. 368 of 1994 (Repealed) | 368. If the Council or one of its committees wishes to examine a Member or officer of the Assembly, the House may authorise the Member to attend if the Member agrees. The House may order an officer to attend. An officer means a member of staff employed solely by the Speaker. |
| 1997 Cons. Ruling | SPEAKER MURRAY : I wish to make a brief statement on the conduct of the Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee hearings on the estimates of The Legislature. As members no doubt are aware, there has been some discussion in the public arena revolving around my decision as Speaker, both last year and this year, not to attend the hearings on The Legislature. There are many important duties attached to the office of Speaker. The Speaker has duties which revolve around proceedings in the House, duties in the management of the Parliament and duties which are connected with the official representation of the Parliament. Another duty, which I consider to be of the utmost importance, is my statutory duty, referred to in section 31 of the Constitution Act, to be the independent and impartial representative of the members of the Legislative Assembly. Part of that duty is to uphold the status of this House as the pre-eminent Chamber in our two-House system. The Legislative Assembly is the House from which the Government is formed, the House to which the Executive Government is obliged to go for its appropriations and the House to which the Treasurer comes to make the Budget Speech. With this in mind, I consider it my duty to take a stand against the other place over what I believe is a gross discourtesy towards the Assembly and its members. Members would be aware that there has been some dispute between the Houses as to whether the estimates committees, which were originally conceived by this House, should be joint committees comprising members of both Houses. This disagreement has been the subject of messages between the Houses, which is right and proper and in accordance with the standing orders of both Houses. However, the Legislative Council, by abandoning this dialogue through messages and other means, and by giving a general purpose standing committee a reference on the Budget Estimates, has failed the people of New South Wales by not recognising the position of the Legislative Assembly as the pre-emin |
| 1996 Precedent | 1. Message from Legislative Council requesting that the Assembly give leave for the Speaker, Ministers and Officers of the Assembly to appear and give evidence before Council Estimates Committees. VP 15/5/96, 118-119 2. Standing Order amended to provide that an “officer” is a member of staff employed solely by the Speaker. VP 25/9/96, 439 |
| 1993 Precedent | 1. The Speaker made a statement concerning a communication received from the Senate requesting the Legislative Assembly to require the attendance of the Premier to provide evidence before a Senate select committee. The Speaker advised the House that as the request was without precedence in the NSW Parliament he had sought advice of the Crown law officers. Having regard to that advice he suggested that the House should not take any further action in regard to this matter. His reasons were as follows. The Senate recognises the sovereignty of the New South Wales Parliament and the implication in the Commonwealth Constitution that the various State Parliaments will not interfere with each other by requesting the attendance of the Premier instead of demanding that the House require the Premier to attend before its Select Committee. The Assembly could, and would, rightfully claim the right of attendance of its members to its own service, and to direct otherwise would not have legal force. The Legislative Assembly cannot by resolution change the law. If the Assembly demanded the Premier to attend the Senate Select Committee, I would suggest that such a direction would be ultra vires the powers of the House in that the Assembly only possesses powers to direct its members in regard to its own functions and authorities. The concept of responsible government requires Ministers to be responsible to the Parliament to which they have been elected; and if the House did demand that the Premier attend, the effect would be to unlawfully bring the Premier to account before another Parliament. The attendance of the Premier is requested by the Senate in his official capacity as Leader of the Executive Government in New South Wales and, in that capacity, it would not be competent for this House to direct the Premier in the exercise of a discretion which is his alone to exercise or not. The House is thus not empowered to make a demand of the Premier in this matter. As a matter of courtesy, I will convey this to the President of the S |
| 1993 Precedent | 1. Message received from Legislative Council advising that leave had be given for the Legislative Council members of the Joint Select Committee Upon Police Administration to appear before and give evidence to the Legislative Council Standing Committee Upon Parliamentary Privilege in relation to its inquiry into the disclosure of in camera evidence taken by the Joint Select Committee Upon Police Administration. The Legislative Council requested that the Assembly pass a similar Resolution. The next day, the Speaker informed that House that consideration of the matter had inadvertently not been set down on the business paper as business of the House and invited the Leader of the Opposition to fix consideration of the message as an order of the day for the next sitting day. Motion moved and agreed to. PD 3/3/93, 298-9, PD 4/3/93, 375
VP 3/3/93, 64, VP 4/3/93, 70 |