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Senate President Wade Mark has issued a formal rebuke over what he described as efforts to intimidate or harass Independent Senators ahead of today’s crucial debate on the Prime Minister’s Pension (Amendment) Bill 2025, warning that such actions represent a “serious breach of parliamentary privilege.”

Delivering a special ruling from the Chair at the start of Monday’s Senate sitting, Mark said he was compelled to intervene early following formal correspondence he received regarding public statements made about how Independent Senators might vote on the controversial legislation.

“Parliamentary privilege provides essential protection from external interference of any kind,” Mark stated. “It guarantees Members of this Parliament the freedom to speak, deliberate, and vote without fear or coercion… This freedom is not a mere courtesy—it is a fundamental constitutional right, sacrosanct and beyond challenge or compromise.”