Executive Accountability to the Australian Senate and the New South Wales Legislative Council

Abstract:     
This article analyses and compares the operation of the powers of two Australian parliamentary upper Houses, the Senate and the New South Wales Legislative Council, to require the Executive to produce state papers and to compel Ministers and public servants to give evidence to parliamentary committees. It considers the legitimacy of claims for privilege and analyses the operation of the recent NSW procedure of using an 'independent legal arbiter' to assess disputed claims of privilege. It also addresses the issue of whether a House of a federal Parliament can compel the attendance of a Member of the other House or a Minister of a State Parliament, or vice versa.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 35

Keywords: Parliament, Executive, Upper House, Senate, Legislative Council, responsible government, executive accountability, privilege, public interest immunity, legal professional privilege, commercial confidentiality, Cabinet confidentiality, collective ministerial responsibility, cabinet documents

JEL Classification: K10, K30, H11, H70, H77

working papers series