Andrew Wallace (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will resume his seat. I am very familiar with the provision that the Manager of Opposition Business refers to on a page 517. In fact, I spoke about it in question time today, about references to corruption, deliberate dishonesty et cetera. Previous Speakers have ruled on things such as sedition and treason. If the Leader of the House had referred specifically to a member of the Labor Party or members of the party—

An honourable member interjecting—

Look, I am just not going to take interjections while I am a ruling on a point of order, so whoever is interjecting will cease immediately. Part of the problem in this role is when the level of interjections is so high I can't hear exactly what is being said. I did not hear the Leader of the House say anything that would have offended this provision, or the way that the House has dealt with these issues of inappropriate or alleged inappropriate conduct. So I am going to give the call to the Leader of the House—

An honourable member interjecting—

I am going to give the call to the Leader of the House. The Leader of the Opposition can resume his seat. I am going to listen very carefully. If you want me to rule on these things, you have got to allow me the opportunity to actually hear what is being said. That shouldn't be rocket science. The Leader of the House.

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