This report should be read in the context of the Committee’s December 2003 report entitled Parliamentary privilege and seizure of documents by ICAC (Report 25). That report addresses important questions concerning the powers of investigative bodies such as the ICAC to seize documents under search warrant in the light of the rights and immunities conferred by parliamentary privilege, and in particular Article 9 of the Bill of Rights 1689.
The Committee’s report found that privileged documents are immune from seizure and recommended procedures to be adopted for resolution of the matter at hand. Following the tabling of that report, the Legislative Council adopted procedures for the determination of which of the documents seized by ICAC fall within the scope of proceedings in Parliament. The documents were consequently examined and dealt with in accordance with the resolution of the House. This report deals with a dispute which has arisen as to the status of a small number of those documents.