Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday, when I gave a long and extensive ruling on this and referred to page 555 of Practice, I did quote that section that included:

A Minister may not be asked a question about his … former ministerial role.

Then I quoted the section:

However, in a case when a Minister had issued a statement referring to earlier responsibilities …

I said that was in 2006. Indeed, it was on 9 February 2006, and it was a question from the then Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley, to Mr Truss, the now Deputy Prime Minister, and indeed it did refer to a statement from the minister's office. So, in that sense, the member for Isaacs has followed that precedent that I identified. What I am going to rule though is that the question and the answer were very tight; it went to the statement itself. I am going to allow the member for Isaacs to rephrase the question, because, whilst the Practice is obviously very limited in this area, I do not believe it is within the intent of the Practice back then to allow a questioner to simply refer to a statement that has been made and then raise a different issue. So I am going to allow the member for Isaacs to rephrase the question.

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