parliamentary privilege (1 Viewer)

[stamos]

so our politicians are allowed to say whatever they want in parliament without getting sued for defamation etc

this week in south austrialia they're going to pass a law revoking that privilege when politicians accuse people of sex crimes because the speaker was saying that some government MPs were paedophiles

do you guys think that this is a responsible reform, or something that erodes liberty too much in our democracy ?

 

[Riewe]

Accusing someone of being a paedophile is quite a serious accusation, one that can follow you around for the rest of your life even though you are innocent.

In this case, in SA, i believe that he didn't name who he was accusing, but supposedly he didn't have any evidence to support his claims, so it was both kinda a bet both ways. If he named someone, but didn't have any evidence, then it would be quite serious.

But onto parlimentary privilege, i think it gives them too many liberties, as they can say anything they want, without evidence without fear of retribution. And in many cases, they seem to retract their statement shortly after anyway, mainly due to the lackof evidence. But once someone gets accused, especially if they're innocent, it can affect them for a long time, while their accuser gets no punishment for false accusations. SO it should change.

 

[ohne]

The idea that a party could even consider supporting this legislation is disturbing. You cannot have robust debate if politicians are worried about being sued for something they say.

 

[townie]

I agree with Parliamentary privellege when it is used for intended purpose (to promote debate without fear of prosecution) e.g. positive example: when johnny was going 2 use P.P. to reveal companies giving dodgy Pap Smear tests.

but it's bad when used incorrectly *cough*heffernan*cough*

so there should be some scrutiny for abuse of P.P.

 

[Enlightened_One]

Parliamentary privelege does appear to extend to far. On the air politicians look like seventh graders out at lunch. They just seem to hurl abuse and yell over top of one another. Remember it was in the news some woman was called a 'cow' or something.

But apparently things get done in parliament so it makes you wonder if politicians aren't acting up for the camera.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

Parliamentary privelege does appear to extend to far. On the air politicians look like seventh graders out at lunch. They just seem to hurl abuse and yell over top of one another. Remember it was in the news some woman was called a 'cow' or something.

That's just question time that they are so rowdy, and that's the only part the media ever shows us.

 

[katie_tully]

Reminds me of a teacher here.

Recently he had some allegations regarding sexual harrassment put against him by some disgruntled female students. They alleged he touches them inappropriately, but their story changed every 5 minutes. Anyway, word got out about it, and his reputation was damaged.

Turns out the allegations were false, and they were holding a grudge because he makes them work in class, instead of chatting.