Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

In response to the point of order, I'm just going to point out a couple of things to the Leader of the Opposition. I'm not going to take the House to the page of the Practice that makes clear the very long history of the Prime Minister being able to refer questions to any minister, and I am not going to take him to the page of the Practice where it says how that should be done, because it doesn't say so. There's been a long history of Prime Ministers not coming to the microphone and referring the question away. That's certainly been the case. It's something I'm happy to look at. This is the last day of this year. Certainly he's not the first Prime Minister to look to a minister and ask them to answer the question. The Minister for Industrial Relations has the call.

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