Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

No, the call is going to alternate. I'll just say to the House very briefly: obviously people are jumping up. I'm trying to alternate the call. There's no secret that there are arrangements, with an Independent question early on in question time. If the government has decided not to jump, that doesn't mandate who I call, so I did call the Leader of the Opposition immediately after the member for Maribyrnong. I did that on the basis that I thought he was first getting to his feet ahead of the member for Melbourne. But I do point out, in any event, given the position of the Leader of the Opposition, if it was a contest, I would have called the Leader of the Opposition anyway. It obviously presents a difficulty for me, but we have two questions from that side and one from the government. We've now had one from this side.

All I can do is ensure that, in allocating the call, I alternate. If members wish to have things run more smoothly, with respect to the Independents, that's something they'll have to sort out within their processes. It's not up to me to simply just pick an Independent because the government hasn't jumped. What I've tried to do now is allocate the call as fairly as I can.

Ms Burney interjecting—

The member for Barton might like to resume her seat. Members will recall that the member for Melbourne had sought the call after being denied it as well. I thought that was the fair thing to do. We'll now go back to the regular alternating of the call.

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