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  Was Xenophon's Use of Parliamentary Privilege Appropriate?

By Ursula Skjonnemand
ABC - Mornings
September 13, 2011

http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2011/09/parliamentary-privilege.html

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has carried out his threat - naming a Catholic priest who's been accused of sex abuse crimes.

Xenophon used parliamentary privilege to name the man... after the South Australian Catholic Church refused to stand the priest down while investigating it.

The Archbishop who's made the allegation said he didn't want the priest publicly named.

In any other circumstances it would be against the law to identify the man.

So is this an appropriate use of parliamentary privilege?

And should there be conditions on parliamentary privilege?

Anne Twomey is a constitutional law expert at the University of Sydney.

 
 

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