Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

Before I call the member for Oxley, I think this is important information for members of the House, following the Leader of the Opposition's last attempted point of order. I'm going to make it very clear to the House, just so members understand. It's been the practice of speakers for many decades now to be very liberal when it comes to the practice of interpreting the standing orders with questions. Just so that members are clear, the rules for questions, as the Leader of the Opposition outlined, in standing order 100 include that questions must not be debated, and they also must not contain arguments, inferences, imputations, insults, ironical expressions or hypothetical matter. If the opposition want me to enforce that, I think they will find it very difficult to ask any questions at all. I would just make that point.

See this speech in context