Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I made the point about the coalition agreement. It did refer to the previous answer. I've said on numerous occasions: you just can't refer to a previous answer and ask a separate question. If you want to ask a question simply about legal costs, you need to frame it that way. The substance of that question—

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting—

No, look, the member for Hunter will resume his seat. He's not going to help by interrupting at this point. He's certainly not going to help himself—put it that way. I'm making it very clear: I'm not going to allow the Practice to be warped. It specifically refers to coalition agreements. I think I said: on page 554, it specifically refers to that. If you want to ask a question about legal costs, you need to ask that, and not ask it under the cover of a coalition agreement, which is specifically in the Practice as not being in order. You've got a choice: you can rephrase it, or we're going to move on.

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