Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

You noted that that can be done directly on indulgence. The Prime Minister was paired out last evening for a personal matter. You noted that, whilst it's not usual, a letter could be tabled to provide the clarification. As you noted, that is a mechanism to allow for that clarification to be made as quickly as possible. The third way in which it could happen is noted at page 566 of Practice, whereby the clarification can be given in writing to the Clerk and the Clerk would, in due course, treat that in the same manner as an answer to a question in writing, which would find its way onto the record some short time after the provision of that letter.

That letter to the Clerk, in precisely and substantially the same terms as the letter that was provided to you, has been provided to the Clerk by the Prime Minister this morning. So two of the three possible ways in which that clarification could be made have been made, and, in those circumstances, the Practice has been abided with, clearly, in the way that you indicated it needed to be, or should have been, or can be, yesterday.

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