 The protections afforded by parliamentary privilege are essential to parliament and its committees to be able to operate effectively.The bulk of the work of the privileges committee's work is associated with facilitating a 'right of reply' for people adversely named in the Senate, as well as involving investigations of unauthorised disclosures of Senate committee proceedings, complaints from witnesses in connection with evidence given to committees, and allegedly misleading evidence given to committees.The purpose of the scrutiny of bills committee is to assess "legislative proposals against a set of accountability standards that focus on the effect of proposed legislation on individual rights, liberties and obligations, and on parliamentary propriety".