Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

To assist the member for O’Connor by treating it as a point of order, I can indicate to him that there was no point of order. I can say to him, in the general sense, that, if he has concerns about the conduct of question time, I invite him to take that up with the Procedure Committee. But I indicate to him that, if matters about question time that are of concern are only to be dealt with by precedent and practice, I think we really have a problem about getting change in question time, because that would only be sustained by the person in the chair on the basis of the practice that they would like to put in place. As he is aware, early on in this parliament I sought the cooperation of the Procedure Committee in taking the inquiry about question time from the last parliament and moving it to a conclusion. They, as is their right, decided that they had other priorities. I simply say on the issues that he has raised that, whilst of course an individual occupant of the chair could make rulings and deal with these things, if they are to be done in a sustainable way for the future operation of this chamber, those issues are best addressed by changes to the standing orders.

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