Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

Order! As I recollect, the details of ministerial arrangements and the division between ministers of responsibilities for ministers in the other chamber have been circulated. I thanked the honourable member for giving me notice of this last week of this as a dorothy dixer, but I do not thank him for now raising it again. But I will try to do justice to the point he is making. The general principle that should underpin question time is that this is an opportunity to put the executive to the test about areas of public policy and it would seem appropriate that the executive from time to time would decide who is the appropriate minister to answer the question. It is on that basis that I proceed in this way.

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