Confidentiality
7 Confidentiality
If any evidence proposed to be given before, or the whole or a part of a document produced or proposed to be produced to, the Committee relates to a secret or confidential matter, the Committee may, and at the request of the witness giving the evidence or the person producing the document must—
take the evidence in private, or
direct that the document, or the part of the document, be treated as confidential.
If a direction under subclause (1) applies to a document or part of a document produced to the Committee—
the contents of the document or part are, for the purposes of this clause, to be regarded as evidence given by the person producing the document or part and taken by the Committee in private, and
the person producing the document or part is, for the purposes of this clause, to be regarded as a witness.
If, at the request of a witness, evidence is taken by the Committee in private—
the Committee must not, without the consent in writing of the witness, and
a person (including a member of the Committee) must not, without the consent in writing of the witness and the authority of the Committee under subclause (5),
disclose or publish the whole or a part of that evidence.
Maximum penalty—20 penalty units or imprisonment for 3 months, or both.
If evidence is taken by the Committee in private otherwise than at the request of a witness, a person (including a member of the Committee) must not, without the authority of the Committee under subclause (5), disclose or publish the whole or part of that evidence.
Maximum penalty—20 penalty units or imprisonment for 3 months, or both.
The Committee may, in its discretion, disclose or publish or, by writing under the hand of the Chair, authorise the disclosure or publication of evidence taken in private by the Committee, but this subclause does not operate so as to affect the necessity for the consent of a witness under subclause (3).
Nothing in this clause prohibits—
the disclosure or publication of evidence that has already been lawfully published, or
the disclosure or publication by a person of a matter of which the person has become aware otherwise than by reason, directly or indirectly, of the giving of evidence before the Committee.
This clause has effect despite section 4 of the Parliamentary Papers (Supplementary Provisions) Act 1975.
If evidence taken by the Committee in private is disclosed or published in accordance with this clause, sections 5 and 6 of the Parliamentary Papers (Supplementary Provisions) Act 1975 apply to and in relation to the disclosure or publication as if it were a publication of that evidence under the authority of section 4 of that Act.
Note.
The Defamation Act 2005 makes provision for 2 defences in respect of the publication of defamatory matter that is contained in evidence taken by, or documents produced to, the Committee in private, but only if the evidence or documents have been disclosed or published in accordance with this clause.
Section 28 of the Defamation Act 2005 (when read with clause 8 of Schedule 2 to that Act) ensures that such documents attract the defence relating to public documents in defamation proceedings.
Section 29 of the Defamation Act 2005 (when read with clause 17 of Schedule 3 to that Act) ensures that proceedings in which such evidence is taken or documents produced attract the defences relating to fair reports of proceedings of public concern in defamation proceedings.
This Act’s bill:Explanatory memorandumSecond reading speech
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