Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I'm ready to rule on the matter. This has come up a number of times, and certainly the Leader of the House is quite right that a minister can't be asked point blank about their previous portfolio in this House. There are some exceptions, though, and one exception is:

A Minister may not be asked a question about his or her actions in a former ministerial role. However, in a case when a Minister had issued a statement referring to earlier responsibilities, a question relating to the statement was permitted.

He did make comments yesterday, and there are a couple of precedents there. I could go through them, with the most recent being in 2006 where Speaker Andrew ruled a question in order—in fact, he didn't even get to rule. The minister was Minister Truss, who answered about his previous ministerial responsibilities based on the fact he'd made some comments. So I will allow the question. Of course, it's up to the ministers as to how they respond.

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