False

Call for Submissions

Submissions closed on Monday, 25 June 2012

Objective of the Bill

The objective of the Criminal Law (False Evidence Before Parliament) Amendment Bill 2012 (the Bill) is to amend the Criminal Code to re-introduce the repealed section 57 (False evidence before Parliament), with amendment, to make it an offence to knowingly give false evidence to Parliament or its committee's.

Other Information

The Criminal Law (False Evidence Before Parliament) Amendment Bill 2012 and Explanatory Notes are available from the Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel at www.legislation.qld.gov.au.

The Hansard transcript of the explanatory speech for the Bill can be found at www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/HALnks/120619/criminal.pdf.

Reasons for the Bill

The Bill re-introduces section 57 (False evidence before Parliament), with amendment, into the Criminal Code. The amendments expressly reflect the intention that the parliamentary privilege of freedom of speech and debate is abrogated to the extent required by the offence and clarify that the offences applies to Members of Parliament as well as non-members (Explanatory Notes, p. 1).

The Legislative Assembly will retain the right to decide whether particular conduct should be dealt with as a contempt of Parliament or whether it should be prosecuted under the new offence (Explanatory Notes, p. 1).

Report

On 2 July 2012, the Committee tabled its Report No. 1, Criminal Law (False Evidence Before Parliament) Amendment Bill 2012. A copy of the report is available here or can be accessed at Related Publications.

The Government tabled its response to the Committee's report on 1 August 2012. A copy of the Government Response is available here or can be accessed at Related Publications.

The Criminal Law (False Evidence Before Parliament) Amendment Bill 2012 was passed, with amendment, by the Legislative Assembly on 2 August 2012.

Referral

On 19 June 2012 the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Hon Jarrod Bleijie MP, introduced the Criminal Law (False Evidence Before Parliament) Amendment Bill 2012 into the Queensland Parliament. Subsequently, Parliament referred the Bill to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee for detailed consideration.

The Committee reported back to Parliament on 2 July 2012.