Nick Xenophon Says Senate Must Consider Principles of Parliamentary Privilege over Priest Naming

By Michael Owen
The Australian
June 25, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/nick-xenophon-says-senate-must-consider-principles-of-parliamentary-privilege-over-priest-naming/story-e6frgczx-1226669005489

INDEPENDENT senator Nick Xenophon says Senate President John Hogg must consider important principles of parliamentary privilege if he probes the incorrect naming of an Adelaide priest as a perpetrator of clerical sexual abuse.

Senator Xenophon yesterday stopped short of agreeing to accept any sanction from the Senate over his actions.

"I am not going to pre-empt anything the Senate does - but there are also important principles of privilege at stake and the reasons for it,'' he said.

"I am confident the President of the Senate will deal with the complaint fairly and promptly, unlike the way the Adelaide Archdiocese of the Catholic Church dealt with John Hepworth's complaints.''

Senator Xenophon used parliamentary privilege in September 2011 to name Monsignor Ian Dempsey as one of three priests who allegedly abused former head of the Traditional Anglican Communion John Hepworth in a Catholic seminary the 1960s.

The South Australian Director of Public Prosecutions recommended earlier this month that no abuse charges be laid against Monsignor Dempsey, after a 19-month investigation found there was insufficient evidence for a jury to have a reasonable chance of conviction.