Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The statement was withdrawn. Shortly thereafter, the Minister for Defence requested that the member for Oxley be required to withdraw statements he had made, without outlining what those statements were. I sit very close to the member for Oxley and I did not hear those comments. It is pretty clear, Mr Speaker, that, unless you have some kind of telepathic relationship with the Minister for Defence, you would not have heard them either. Yet you required the member for Oxley to withdraw those statements. My question to you is: prior to a member being required to withdraw, is it necessary for you to establish and to rule that the statements made by that member were unparliamentary or, if a withdrawal is requested, is it the position that that withdrawal will be automatically granted? You have ruled both ways this afternoon; I would like to know which is the rule.

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