Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I have a question to you concerning your interpretation today of standing order 104. Standing order 104 simply states:

An answer must be relevant to the question.

Mr Speaker, on three occasions today questions were asked of ministers opposite which did not ask for those ministers to speak at all about opposition policies or anything of that nature—alternative views of the world or the state of the opposition in general, yet those three ministers—the Treasurer, the minister for education and the minister for health—saw those questions as providing them with open slather to rip into the opposition. The standing orders, as you know, Mr Speaker, are designed in a way which provides an automatic opportunity for the government of the day. This government, in particular, systematically abuses the standing orders.

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