.T Matt McEACHANm p A Member for Redlands Queensland Legislative wssemblyl Hiimhrr I ? ' - . 8 August 2017 Tobled D 26 OC5^2017 ByiMwG The Hon Peter Wellington MP Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Parliament House Alice Street BRISBANE QLD 4000 Dear Mr Speaker I write to draw to your attention a matter of privilege relating to a possible Contempt of the Legislative Assembly. Please find attached to this correspondence submissions and various other documents in relation to this matter. I ask that the Member for Yeerongpiily and the Member for South Brisbane be referred to the Ethics Commitf^e for prosecution for Contempt of the Legislative Assembly. Should you have any-dueries, I am happy to meet at your convenience to discuss this matter further Yours sincerely ) MattrMcEachan MP Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition Member for Redlands Enc. A Suite H20, Victoria Point Lakeside, 11 -27 Bunker Road, Victoria Point Qld 4165 • PO Box 3788, Victoria Point West Old 4165 P 3207 6910 E [email protected] W mattmceachan.com.au f /MattMcEachanLNP Your strong local voice for Redlands SUBMISSIONS IN RELATION TO A MATTER OF PRIVILEGE RELATING TO A MISUSE OF THE PARLIAMENTARY BROADCAST BY MARK BAILEY MP AND JACKIE TRAD MP BACKGROUND 1. This matter relates to the posting of an image taken within the Legislative Assembly chamber onto the website, www.twitter.com/MarkBaiievlVlP by the Member for Yeerongpiliy on 8 August 2017, 7 August 2017, 5 August 2017 and 17 July 2017. The post dated 17 July 2017 was re-published that day to www.twitter.com/iackietrad by the Member for South Brisbane. Each image is identical and screenshots of each post appears at appendix one. THE FACTS 2. The Member for Yeerongpiliy operates an account with Social Media website Twitter at the URL of www.twitter.com/MarkBailevMP to which he posts an assortment of content. There is no suggestion the account is not operated by the Member for Yeerongpiliy. 3. The Member for South Brisbane operates an account with Social Media website Twitter at the URL of www.twitter.com/iackietrad to which she posts an assortment of content. There is no suggestion the account is not operated by the Member for South Brisbane. 4. As reproduced in appendix one, both Members have posted an image which appears to have been taken inside the Legislative Assembly chamber. RELEVANT CONSIDERATIONS 5. Section 37 of the Parliament of Queens/and Act 2001 defines the meaning of “Contempt" of the Assembly as: 37 Meaning of contempt of the Assembly (1) Contempt of the Assembly means a breach or disobedience of the powers, hghts or immunities, or a contempt, of the Assembly or its members or committees. 6. Section 58(3) of the Parliament o f Queensland Act 2001 provides as follows: (3) Publication of a parliamentary record in contravention of a condition imposed by the Assembly is a contempt of the Assembly. 7. The Parliament has ordered that use of the Parliamentary Broadcast is subject to certain terms and conditions, inter alia as follows: 1. The material must only be used for the purposes of fair and accurate reports of proceedings and must not in any circumstances be used for; a. political advertising, election campaigning or any advertising campaign that would normally require at law a broadcaster to announce who has authorised the material; b. satire or ridicule; and c. commercial sponsorship or commercial advertising; 8. Section 49 of the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 defines the term "parliamentary record” to include any record relating to the proceedings in the Assembly. APPLiCATION 9. As the images shown in appendix one were taken Inside the Legislative Chamber, I submit that the images are a parliamentary record within the meaning of section 49 of the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001. 10. 1 submit that it is clear that both the Member for South Brisbane and the Member for Yeerongpiliy have further published a record of the Assembly by virtue of re-publishing the images. 11. I further submit that the purpose for publishing the images was not the allowable purpose of “fair and accurate reports of proceedings” and that the further publishing of the images by the Members is not permitted by the conditions of broadcast. 12. Therefore I submit that the Member for Yeerongpiliy and the Member for South Brisbane have potentially committed a contempt of the Parliament, CONCLUSION 13. I respectfully submit that this matter warrants the further attention of the house by referral to the Ethics Committee for further investigation. APPENDIX 1 Member for Yeerongpiliy Mark Bailey MP O •ir LNP-One Nation unity ticket at estimates ignoring Qld Clean Energy Boom with 17 renewable projects in favour of expensive new coal power 7:12 :M - 17 j.il 201' 8 Ret\'.eets 12 l.'/.'-i Mark Bailey M PO ■ M-^rkBai r\Pi '\\ r g ' j Peas in a Pod - Can't be trusted on power after trying to privatise & ripping off Qlders with their record majority /.mooiffe! ercc 1 i:59 PM - 5 .''.veetsIt 6-.. Mark Bailey MP 0 •[ejl'/irg to ; t •. € m 5;11 A M - 7 r - .u - o r 2 Aet^vrets 9 I Mark Bailey MP O iJ-rk'LaileyMr Rt.plying to '.1 M and 3 others I /- g Z 1 Lii;e ’^v! Member for South Brisbane Mark Bailey MPOc .kBsileyM ' ■ J-.l 17 LNP-One Nation unity ’icket at estimates ignoring Qld Clean Energy Boom O with 17 renewable projects in favour cf expensive new coal power r>. iv r : : C 4 L"l. h U 12 . r'c * -5 SEP S September 2017 Honourable Peter Wellington MP Speaker of Lhe Legislative Assembly Parliament House George Street BRISBANE QLD 4 0 0 0 e / A Dear M r Speaker, Thank you for your letter of 4 September 2017 in relation to a complaint from the Member for Redlands and Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition about the publication of an image on my social media account of former Premier Campbell Newman and current Leader of the Opposition the Member for Clayfield. The picture referred to by tlie Member for Redlands is a widely distributed media photograph of Opposition Leader Tim NichoHs and former Premier Campbell Newman published five years ago (example attached), it can be inferred from the fact that no complaint has been made by the Leader of the Opposition, the former Premier, or any other member of the Opposition, that the publication referred to was in accordance with parliamentary rules and regulations. In publishing the photograph, I sourced it from a Herald Sun article published on the web, where any member of the public anywhere in the world can also access it. Section 50 of the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 (the Act) provides that the Assembly may authorise publication of a parliamentary record. Section 58 of the Act provides that the Assembly may at any time impose conditions ori the publication of a parliamentary record, and that publication of a parliamentary record in contravention of a condition imposed by the Assembly is a contempt of tiie Assembly. Bioadcast Terms and Conditions have been published on the website of the Parliament of Queensland. Those Terms and Conditions include the following: C o n d itio n s o f Access The Legislative Assembly authorises the further publication of this broarica.st of the proceedings of The Queensland Parliament, subject to the follov;ing conditions amongst others: 1. The iiiaterial must only be used for the purposes of fair and accurate reports of proceedings and must not in any circumstances be used for; i. political advertising, elertion campaigning or any advertising campaign that would normally require at law a broadcaster to announce who has authorised the material; ii. satire or ridicule; and iii. commercial sponsorship or commercial advertising; The Member for Redlands has alleged that my tweets are in breach of the Broadcast Terms and Conditions in that they are satire or ridicule. In order to establish that I am in contempt of the Parliament, the Member for Redlands must establish two elements. As the Queensland Parliament's Ethics committee stated, in its Report no. 157, M atter of privilege referred by the speaker on 16 December 2014 relating to an alleged use of the broadcast of the proceedings of the Queensland Parliament in contruvenLion of the terms and conditions, the issues to be resolved in establishing whether the allegation, on the face of it, gives rise to a contempt are listed below. • Was the footage of the broadcast of proceedings used in breach of the Broadcast Terms and conditions? • Did the use of the footage of the broadcast of proceedings amount, or was intended or likely to amount, to an improper interference with the free exercise by the Assembly of its authority or functions? The Member for Redlands has not alleged which sub- paragraph of the Broadcast Terms and Conditions he believes I have breached, I respectfully submit that the tweets in question are in fact fair and accurate reports of proceedings in relation to the previous government, are relevant in context and can in no way be interpreted as political advertising or election campaigning, satire or ridicule, or commercial sponsorship or advertising. In fact two of the four tweets in question are simply the photograph itself with no text accompanying them at all. It is hard to interpret how circulating a photograph of two public figures in the public space of the Parliament that has been in the public domain for approximately five years could be interpreted as satire or ridicule v-;hen no comment is attached to the photograph.