Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

The Attorney-General needs to pause.

Mr Bowen interjecting—

The member for McMahon will cease interjecting. I need the Attorney-General to resume his seat for a second. I listened very carefully to the question. I had a caution about it until the very end, which was when the member for Hindmarsh said that the question related to the ministerial standards rather than the Register of Members' Interests. What the Attorney's doing is obviously referring to the Register of Members' Interests, but the Prime Minister has no responsibility for that whatsoever. The Prime Minister has no responsibility for the Register of Members' Interests of the House of Representatives. He can't even be questioned on it on his own. That is crystal clear. Not only can he not be asked a question on it, no-one can answer such a question on his behalf. The question was about the ministerial standards. So I'm happy to call the Attorney-General.

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