Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

Before I call the Minister for Home Affairs, I made my position clear yesterday on the content of answers. I am not in a position, obviously, to know what the minister is going to say, but I have a fair idea. I am going to say to the minister that the House of RepresentativesPractice and the standing orders are very clear. I think the question is cleverly written and is in order, but it is the answer I will be focusing on. I am not going to allow questions—I am going to make this point about House of Representatives Practice. The standing orders make it clear that ministers can only be questioned about matters for which they are responsible. I say in all seriousness that the government is very keen to enforce that when it gets questions from the opposition about matters for which there are not responsible. The Practice makes very clear that some Speakers have had a very strict approach and indeed not even allowed taglines like 'alternative policies'. I have been more liberal, but there has never been a time when an entire answer can be about an opposition's policy. I am saying that because the policies the minister is responsible for are the government's. The question is, as I said, cleverly written and in order, but, for the minister to be in order with his answer, he needs to take the approach that I have been allowing. I will let him have a go.

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