Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I seek your assistance in clarifying the accountability of the members for Parkes and Sturt in their capacity as assistant ministers. The designation ‘assistant minister’ appeared not only in prime ministerial media statements issued last month but also in Gazette No. S15, issued on 30 January 2007. I refer you to standing order 98, which clearly rules out questions being asked of parliamentary secretaries but remains silent on the new designation of ‘assistant minister’. I particularly refer you to the comments from the member for Parkes, who stated in a media release that he would be responsible for the implementation of water resources in rural Australia. He therefore would quite clearly be eligible to be asked questions, under standing order 99, which allows for questions being asked if a member is responsible for a particular area of government policy.

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