Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

To the point of order, I appreciate that the Manager of Opposition Business tried to show authority by arriving with a copy of the standing orders. The sub judice convention is not referred to in the standing orders. It's referred to in Practice. He's going through there now. I'd direct him to pages 521 and 522. The sub judice convention in particular applies, the House has previously found, when you're dealing with something in the order of a jury trial, where there is a sense that what is said in parliament could have an implication for the justice that is then shown. To think in any way that debate in this parliament over the behaviour of the former government would have an impact on a former High Court judge in that way is something that the convention goes nowhere near. Practice is clear on that, and it's an extraordinary claim to make.

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