Peter Slipper parliamentary privilege claim rejected by prosecutor
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Version 0 of 1. Prosecutors have rejected suggestions that former federal speaker Peter Slipper may have been on parliamentary business when he used Commonwealth taxi vouchers to pay for visits to wineries. Slipper is facing three criminal charges of dishonestly causing a loss to the Commonwealth, relating to the use of taxi vouchers to pay for trips to wineries near Canberra in 2010 and before he became speaker. He has pleaded not guilty. On the second day of his trial in the ACT magistrates court, prosecutor Lionel Robberds rejected Slipper's suggestion that the case could not proceed because it would breach parliamentary privilege. He said there was no evidence to show Slipper was conducting any parliamentary business during his trips, and that parliamentary privilege could not be used as an excuse to avoid prosecution. Robberds said if the case was thrown out of court because of parliamentary privilege, any MP who committed a crime could escape punishment by telling a court they were on parliamentary business at the time of the crime. "The travel on this occasion was for personal business," Robberds said, adding Slipper would not have used multiple tax vouchers if the trips were for parliamentary business. Slipper's counsel, Kylie Weston-Scheuber, has asked for a permanent stay of proceedings, saying the case is an abuse of process because parliamentary privilege meant Slipper would not be able to present a proper defence. "The very essence of the case infringes on the proceedings of parliament," Weston-Scheuber said. Chief magistrate Lorraine Walker adjourned the hearing until Wednesday morning. Slipper lost his seat at the federal election on 7 September and is no longer in parliament. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |