[LINK] Parltry Ctee Subs [Was Re: Broadband for a Broad Land
Roger Clarke
Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Mon Feb 21 11:29:06 AEDT 2011
We were discussing Parltry Ctees telling submitters not to
pre-publish their submissions.
An invite arrived from the Senate Community Affairs References Ctee today.
It's a *little* over-stated, but overall a reasonable pitch:
>Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a
>confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary
>Privilege. You must not release your submission without the
>Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by
>Parliamentary Privilege. ...
________________________________________________________________________
>Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:08:10 +1100
>To: Link list <link at anu.edu.au>
>From: Roger Clarke <Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au>
>Subject: Re: [LINK] Broadband for a Broad Land
>X-BeenThere: link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>
>At 11:31 +1100 16/2/11, Tom Worthington wrote:
>>Any suggestions on how to respond to the committee's request would be
>>welcome.
>
>The Committee Secretary is out of order and/or outdatedly pompous
>both to say "it is not supposed to be published or disclosed until it
>has been considered by the committee", and to request that it be
>removed.
>
>Although that's a better choice of expression than some I've seen ...
>
>What I understand to be a correct statement (and a reasonable one) is
>that "submissions to Committees attract parliamentary privilege.
>That privilege may be voided if the submission is published (in any
>sense of the word) prior to being considered by the Committee. We
>accordingly recommend that you withhold publication until then". It
>would of course be sensible if that were communicated in advance
>rather than in arrears ...
>
>In any case, I would expect that privilege has been voided by the
>fact of publication, and withdrawal pending acceptance by the
>Committee is unlikely to resuscitate a voided privilege.
>
>Organisations whose work I'm familiar with generally use the same
>method as you do, marking the documents as 'Draft', and making clear
>that the purpose of publication is to gain feedback prior to
>submission. (That can be as simple as pre-pending 'RFC: ' to the
>Subject line of a posting).
>
>It's quite impractical for any organisation of more than one person
>to avoid at least limited publication prior to submission, and it
>would reduce submission quality if sole-authored documents were
>prevented from receiving feedback in advance of submission.
>
>Feel free to use any of the above in a reply if it helps.
>
>But maybe just ignore the letter.
>
>If they decline to accept the submission for that reason (which I
>think is pretty unlikely), write to the Speaker of the HoR and
>formally complain about it.
>
></possibly pompous and probably pointless pontification>
>
>________________________________________________________________________
>
>At 11:31 +1100 16/2/11, Tom Worthington wrote:
>>> I started writing a submission for the NBN Inquiry ...
>>
>>I sent my submission to the NBN inquiry on Monday, along the lines of my
>>Blog posting:
>><http://blog.tomw.net.au/2011/02/broadband-for-broad-land-envrionment.html>.
>>
>>However, the Inquiry Secretary for the House of Representatives Standing
>>Committee on Infrastructure and Communications has replied asking to
>>remove the draft from the web, saying that "... a submission has been
>>sent to a committee it is not supposed to be published or disclosed
>>until it has been considered by the committee. ...".
>>
>>This issue came up more than ten years ago when I was preparing
>>submissions to Senate committees on behalf of the Australian Computer
>>Society. For those inquiries I developed the technique of placing the
>>drat submission online so as to have maximum consultation with members
>>and other bodies. So as not to breech committee rules, I marked these
>>documents "Draft", to distinguish them from the actual final submission
>>made. I had no concerns expressed by the committee secretariats with
>>this practice. Like the process of making submissions in electronic
>>format (the precedent for which was set by an ACS submission), I had
>>assumed this was now accepted practice for parliamentary inquiries.
>>
>>If I am required to obtain permission from a parliamentary committee
>>before discussing a topic with anyone, it will make preparation of any
>>submission very difficult.
>>
>>I an not a lawyer, but my understating is that my right to discuss any
>>issues I wish, with whom ever I wish, is a fundamental one, as
>>recognised by the High Court of Australia. Therefore a rule by a
>>parliamentary committee requiring me to seek their prior permission is
>>invalid.
>>
>>Any suggestions on how to respond to the committee's request would be
>>welcome.
>>
>>
>>--
>>Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
>>PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia http://www.tomw.net.au
>>Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
>>Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
>>Visiting Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre: http://bit.ly/csiro_ict_canberra
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Link mailing list
>>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>>http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>
>--
>Roger Clarke http://www.rogerclarke.com/
>
>Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
> Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
>mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au http://www.xamax.com.au/
>
>Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre Uni of NSW
>Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University
>_______________________________________________
>Link mailing list
>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>
--
Roger Clarke http://www.rogerclarke.com/
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au http://www.xamax.com.au/
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University
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