Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Public Accountability and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I have some questions for you, Mr Speaker. I raised with you last night the rulings of the Deputy Speaker, the member for Page, concerning my speech on appropriation bills Nos 3 and 4, and you agreed to examine the Hansard. I have also examined the Hansard and wish to ask you a number of questions concerning the 14 occasions on which the Deputy Speaker interrupted my speech. The first question is: is it the case that standing order 76 provides exceptions to the rule that a member must speak only on the subject matter of a question under discussion, and that standing order 76(c) expressly lists the appropriation bills as an occasion when public affairs may be debated? If so, on what basis did the Deputy Speaker interrupt me to require me to ‘talk to the appropriation’ when I was discussing the Wheat Board scandal—that is, when I was debating a public affair?

My second question concerns the Deputy Speaker’s statement that the appropriation bill ‘is not an opportunity to attack the Prime Minister or ministers’. The remarks I was making—which I hope you have had the opportunity to read—were indeed critical of the Prime Minister and other ministers, but parliament is a place of robust debate, and my remarks were no more critical than many other speeches which have been made during the appropriation debate. Are opposition members no longer permitted to criticise the Prime Minister or other ministers in debates on the appropriation or other bills?

My third question concerns the Deputy Speaker requiring me to sit down—that is, gagging me—while I was quoting from the Prime Minister’s ‘Address to the Nation’ of 20 March 2003. Was the Deputy Speaker in order in gagging me? If so, are members of this House no longer able to quote from the Prime Minister’s ‘Address to the Nation’ of 20 March 2003?

My fourth question concerns the action of the Deputy Speaker in gagging me after I stated:

There is now no doubt that AWB provided kickbacks to the Iraqi regime and no doubt that it did so after July 2002.

Was the Deputy Speaker in order to gag me for making this statement? If so, can members of this House not point out to the House that AWB provided kickbacks to the Iraqi regime?

My fifth question concerns the Deputy Speaker’s continued interruption after he desisted from his endeavours to sit me down. I was discussing the Australian Wheat Board and he interrupted me to say:

My understanding is that the Australian Wheat Board is not funded by the government.

So what, Mr Speaker? I was discussing a public affair. The previous speaker, the member for Fisher—

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