Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I move:

That the ruling be dissented from.

Mr Speaker, I move dissent from your ruling because question time is a time when the government is held accountable. Question time is a time when the opposition, on behalf of the Australian people, has the opportunity to hold the government to account. Today in question time we are seeking to hold to account the government and, in particular, the Prime Minister on industrial relations and the stripping of award conditions. The Prime Minister has refused to answer every question the Leader of the Opposition and I have asked. I made the point that on two occasions, once outside the House and once inside the House, the Prime Minister had said that several award conditions have been excluded. I made the point, from the AWA, that 46 conditions were excluded, and I put it to the Prime Minister. It was important, Mr Speaker, to go through that list—which you prevented me from doing—because that is the only way we can hold the Prime Minister to account. He will say anything, do anything or mislead us on anything when it comes to industrial relations. Every question put to him today he refused and failed to answer. You, Mr Speaker, failed to hold him to account, and that is why your ruling needs to be dissented from.

It is not as if the question itself was in breach of either the standing orders or rulings made in this House. Page 540 of House of Representatives Practice states:

Questions must not be debated, nor can they contain arguments, comments or opinions. They may not become lengthy speeches or statements and they may not in themselves suggest an answer … questions should not be used as vehicles for the discussion of issues.

It was not a lengthy speech. The basis of that quote from House of Representatives Practice is a ruling by Speaker John McLeay on 31 August 1966. He made the point that it is not about the length of the question; it is about whether the question contains a lengthy speech. Mr Speaker, throughout question time you failed to uphold the standing orders, because you failed to bring the Prime Minister to account.

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