A Question Of Privilege

When Parliament resumed at 2pm Speaker Lockwood Smith told Parliament he had instructed counsel to take a part in the case of the Erin Leigh defamation hearing.

The Supreme court ruled that advice from officials to ministers was not covered by absolute privilege, Dr Smith said the issue raised serious matters which he would refer to the privileges committee for consideration.

Petitions were presented from:

Vaughan Gunson and 38,297 others, requesting that Parliament remove GST from food and tax financial speculation.;

Sorrel Davies and 88 others asking for shark fishing to be made illegal in New Zealand

Geoff Hogman and others asking the House to consider legislation assisting an Auckland tram system

Amongst the papers presented were:

The annual report of the judicial Conduct Commissioner

The annual report of the Office of the Clerk

Select committee reports were presented on the:

Review of the Standing Orders by the Standing Orders Committee

Eleventh biennial conference of the Australasian Council of Public Accounts Committees (ACPAC), Perth, Australia, 27 to 30 April 2011 by the Finance and Expenditure Committee

Reserve Bank of New Zealand's monetary policy statement, September 2011 by the Finance and Expenditure Committee

Report by the New Zealand delegation to the Australia-New Zealand Scrutiny of Legislation Conference, Brisbane, 26-28 July 2011 by the Regulations Review Committee

Petition 2008/108 of Lucinda Rees and 2,564 others by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee

Petition 2008/125 of JG (Grant) Eastgate and Amanda Shirley Roband on behalf of the Eastgate family and 5,551 others the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee

Petition 2008/112 of Darien Fenton by the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee

Report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment on Lignite and climate change: The high cost of low grade coal by the Local Government and Environment Committee

Petition 2008/29 of Alan James Bell and 6 others by the Local Government and Environment Committee

Petition 2008/131 of Kathryn Frances Boswell by the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee

Petition 2008/127 of Janice Tofia by the Education and Science Committee

MPs began Question Time.

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