On the privileges committee
Meredith Williams writes Re. ” Who is the committee that could imprison Dastyari for his Chinese entanglements?” (Monday)
How long before this debacle is christened “Dastyarigate”?
Joe Boswell writes:Re. ” Who is the committee that could imprison Dastyari for his Chinese entanglements?” (Monday)
Charlie Lewis wrote about the Parliamentary Privileges Act… surreally, section eight prohibits either house from expelling any member.”
Surreally? Voters decide who represents their constituency, and voters decide when they have had enough; not other members of Parliament. This law prevents the government gaining a weapon to remove any member once it has the numbers. Are things not bad enough already, without that?
On media experts
Mark Hyland writesRe. “Did you know there’s only one counter-terrorism expert in Australia?” (Monday)
Much like there being only one expert per field, there is only one picture of a judges gavel, and it’s the one used in Bob Gosford’s piece further down the page.
Joe,
As an aside, the American Constitution has a provision by which members of Congress can be expelled if the motion achieves a 2/3 majority, and which has happened 20 times, in addition to a number of cases where the member has preemptively resigned.
My favourite political figure Senator Robert La Follette was threatened with expulsion in 1919 for expressing the truth regarding America’s entry into the war (I think he’s the best President America never had and an exception to the rule that a Republican can’t be a progressive and sensible).
If Australia had a similar provision, the requirement for a 2/3 majority would preclude expulsions for petty political motives.