Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Lyons! The member for Indi! Yet again, we get to the stage after question time where everybody wants to get absolutely excited, including myself, and I am trying to remain calm. There were two things at the end. It was brought to my notice that last week, in a personal explanation, the Leader of the Opposition got in the same expression as I was getting him to sit down for. I would have on that occasion asked him to withdraw. There are two reasons for this: (1) it is unparliamentary—he cannot get up and debate that on the withdrawal—and (2) by that stage, when he is saying things like that, he is entering into debate on a personal explanation. I think that for both those reasons I seek the withdrawals. I am not going to enter into an argy-bargy about the quality of the withdrawal. I accept that it has been withdrawn. I would simply say to the Leader of the Opposition: on occasions when he is asked to withdraw, it would assist the House if he did so without comment.

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