Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I'm just going to say now to the member for Isaacs—

Mr Dutton interjecting—

Mr Albanese interjecting—

If the Minister for Home Affairs and the Leader of the Opposition can just be quiet for a second! Something I've raised before, and I'm going to flag it right now so that there's no surprise: these questions are out of order. It's about the third one in a row that's out of order. You have 30 seconds to ask a question. I allow a preamble, but if I come to the view that these are deliberately outside the standing orders, I'll be cutting off the question. Really it's not the question; it's the statements that are clearly out of order.

I've asked the member for Isaacs to acquaint himself with what I think is a very simple principle, and that is that you can only ask questions about a minister or the Prime Minister's responsibilities. The very beginning of that question was about political parties. One of the points that's well established is that ministers and prime ministers are not responsible for political parties; statements by members who aren't ministers, obviously; occurrences in party rooms; and a whole range of statements. I'm not going to keep repeating myself. It's very clear: the question's out of order. I think I've made my point. I'll hear from the Manager of Opposition Business.

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