Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Homeland Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I have a question to you. It relates to where offensive or unparliamentary words are used in the House. I seek your guidance in what circumstances it will be necessary for the person who was the target of those words to seek their withdrawal, as was the case during the last sitting week when the Manager of Opposition Business sought to have words withdrawn that were targeted at the Leader of the Opposition. The ruling at that time was that, unless the Leader of the Opposition personally sought to have the words removed as offensive, they would stand, but, on the other hand, that is compared with situations where you as Speaker intervene before any member in the House sought the withdrawal of the words, as occurred today when words were targeted at the Prime Minister.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Brisbane, and I say to him the following: it is not the role of the Speaker to give guidance. I refer him to the statement that I made at the beginning of the week, and in particular I refer him to the House of Representatives Practice, page 499, where it says quite clearly it is the words used and the context in which they are used.

Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Homeland Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I appreciate the reference to House Practice; unfortunately I do not believe the statement you made on Monday touched on this issue. And of course—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will not reflect on the chair.

Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Homeland Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, you referred me to a statement in answer to my question. Regrettably, the statement does not relate to the matters raised in my question. That is not reflecting on the chair; I think it is a fair observation. I therefore again ask: in what circumstances are members to be given some guidance—because the chair does in fact give guidance on these matters, as indeed your statement on Monday was intended to do—and in which circumstances are we to take it that the member who is the target is required to ask for matters to be withdrawn, as opposed to circumstances in which you will intervene as you did today?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I again thank the member for Brisbane. It is not the role of the chair to give hypothetical rulings, but I will read to him part of what I said in the House on Monday:

The determination as to whether words used in the House are offensive or disorderly rests with the chair, and the chair’s judgment depends on the nature of the word and the context in which it is used.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Further to that issue, I have a question to you and I refer to page 499 of House of Representatives Practice. It states quite clearly:

A Member is not allowed to use unparliamentary words by the device of putting them in somebody else’s mouth or in the course of a quotation.

I believe that is what the Leader of the House has attempted to do, and I seek leave to table the article from the Courier-Mail of 1 September 2004 in which Senator Brandis is alleged to have called the Prime Minister ‘a lying rodent’ and an article from ABC Online of 31 August 2004 which is titled ‘“Lying rodent” claim exposes children overboard rift’. Mr Speaker—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member will not debate his point. If he is raising a question he will come straight to his question.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, Mr Speaker. I will refer to some standing orders, if that is okay.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, the member is not going to debate this. He will come straight to his question.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, can I refer to standing orders in doing so? That is something the Leader of the House has never done, ever—not once.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will either come to his question or resume his seat.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, standing order 89 and standing order 90 are very clear, and today you actually asked the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations to refer to the member for Rankin by—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will either come to his question or resume his seat.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

his name. You then allowed the Leader of the House to make comments. You then asked me to withdraw, which I did consistently.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are not going to debate past decisions.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler will resume his seat and I will respond to him. On Monday, I made a statement where I referred specifically to all of the issues that the member for Grayndler just raised. I refer him back to that statement because I think it covers everything that he has just raised.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I also have a question with respect to your implementation of standing order 89 and your statement which refers to your decision as to whether or not a particular expression is unparliamentary. I have no quarrel with your statement. The question I have, Mr Speaker, is whether there is one mechanism or approach for dealing with unparliamentary language or two? Do we have a situation where particular expressions require immediate withdrawal without any member being required to raise the matter and where other expressions are slightly offensive, but not that offensive, and therefore are only expected to be withdrawn if the target of the expression raises the question?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I think the member is trying to reflect on the chair.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not, Mr Speaker. I am asking you a genuine question: is the process of enforcing standing order 89 a uniform process or are there two separate categories of offensive language, which are dealt with differently? That is my question.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Melbourne. I refer him again to House of Representatives Practice, where it is quite clear that, for occupiers of the chair, the decision obviously rests on the issues, as I have already stated today and as I stated on Monday. I said quite clearly:

The determination as to whether words used in the House are offensive or disorderly rests with the chair, and the chair’s judgment depends on the nature of the word and the context in which it is used.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can I just clarify that—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The matter is closed.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not in any way disputing your judgement as to whether or not something is offensive. My question is what you actually do about it.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Melbourne will resume his seat. We have canvassed this issue widely already.