Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

To the point of order raised by the Leader of the House—and I refer also to your statement earlier today, Mr Speaker. The question that's just been asked goes directly to matters that were asked in Senate estimates yesterday and which were allowed in Senate estimates yesterday, the Senate having received the same advice as what you've received today.

I respect that we don't take notice of the other place, but the context of that question, word for word in terms of those issues, is that they were all allowed within the parliamentary committee yesterday. I certainly don't take your statement today as meaning that we cannot ask questions relating to the government's response to the various investigations that are taking place. I would simply remind us of the long history, that while this is the first time—and you referred to it—that this particular crime has happened within the parliamentary precincts it is not the first time there has been a criminal investigation into what might have occurred within the parliamentary precincts. It has happened with respect to the use and uploading of documents from computers within the building and it has happened with respect to phone calls being made when they ought not to have been made to the media concerning an AFP raid. So the concept of it happening within the parliamentary precinct itself is not new, and the question simply goes to the government response subsequent to what the AFP is directly investigating.

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