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September 14th, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
Updated
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Dr Craven says Senator Xenophon has sidestepped any accountability over the issue.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon says he is receiving overwhelming public support for his decision to use parliamentary privilege to name the Adelaide priest accused of sexually abusing a man, now an Anglican archbishop, about 40 years ago.
But some fellow senators have criticised the move, and one leading constitutional scholar says he is guilty of “trial by privilege”.
Senator Xenophon said the Adelaide Catholic diocese had taken too long to satisfactorily resolve the abuse allegations first aired four years ago.
But today the tables turned, as the Senator was accused of failing to respect police and legal processes.
Greg Craven, a constitutional law expert and vice chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, says Senator Xenophon “has trampled on the human rights” of the accused priest.
“Normally speaking if you wanted to say something like this about a particular person in any context, you would have to run the gamut of defamation laws,” he said.
“All of those things are simply avoided by the expedience of standing up in Parliament and none of those effects can be recalled, because once it’s uttered in Parliament it can be reported in the media and the thing is well and truly out there.
“That’s why it’s bad, and I mean this is basically a fundamental human rights issue that has involved, I think, the compromise of a matter, potentially the compromise of a trial; trashing a presumption of innocence; removal of rights to reputation; that is not a good thing.”
Dr Craven says Senator Xenophon has sidestepped any accountability over the issue.
“I mean we all know that one of the traditional journalistic names for privilege is ‘coward’s castle’. That’s a bit unfair, because often privilege is used [in a] very, very effective form for very, very effective debate,” he said.
“But in this case, what you’ve effectively had is someone trying to dispose of a matter in a public forum in which they are completely unaccountable for whatever damage they’ve done.
“I think it brings the concept of parliamentary free speech into ill repute.”
Rebuke
He says if the senator felt obliged to speak out, he should have done so outside of the protection of parliamentary privilege.
“I certainly think that what the senator has done is an improper use of parliamentary privilege, and the preferable course – I note that the senator has said – that in fact he felt himself morally obliged to say something, that of course may be the case, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t have a choice,” he said.
“His choice was either to say it in a forum in which he was completely unaccountable or to be prepared to go out and say it publicly outside Parliament in circumstances where he was accountable.
“He chose the unaccountable route and he has to wear that.”
Audio:
Priest responds to Xenophon’s allegations
(PM)
Senator Xenophon’s use of parliamentary privilege also earned him a rebuke from fellow senators.
“It’s not the role of politicians to play police, prosecutor, judge and jury,” said Liberal Simon Birmingham.
Harry Evans, the former clerk of the Senate, says Senator Xenophon is relying on the protection given to politicians to speak freely.
“Well because statements made in Parliament and actions taken in Parliament and in parliamentary committees are protected by the law of parliamentary privilege, which basically means that members of Parliament are able to speak freely and act freely in the course of proceedings without any fear of being sued or prosecuted or otherwise punished for what they say,” he said.
Some victims’ groups too are critical of Senator Xenophon’s actions.
Leza Muza speaks for Bravehearts, the Queensland-based campaigners against child sexual abuse.
“I think this is a very sensitive issue, but I think we need to ensure that we don’t interfere with due process in a police investigation and in fact make it more difficult for the police to prosecute the accused in this scenario,” she said.
Topics:
law-crime-and-justice,
sexual-offences,
government-and-politics,
world-politics,
adelaide-5000,
australia,
sa
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