Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I direct your attention, Mr Speaker, to the statement in relation to relevance for answers by ministers to questions. It says:

The interpretation of ‘relevant’ has at times been very wide, with a basic requirement being that an answer must maintain a link to the substance of the question.

Mr Speaker, I ask you to review the tape of today’s question time, where you will find on more than one occasion that the basic requirement that an answer must maintain a link to the substance of the question was breached repeatedly without you intervening, despite the opposition drawing the matter to your attention. The construction of the standing orders and the practice cannot mean that if you are asked about an immigration issue you can answer on an industrial relations point—which is what happened in question time today.

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