Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education and Youth. I refer directly to comments he made yesterday regarding his previous portfolio. The minister said in regard to the commuter car park fund that sites were 'chosen on need'. Given we now know that not one of these sites was recommended by the department, how can that possibly be true?

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House, on a point of order?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is a question about the minister's previous portfolio.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to 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.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday I spoke at a press conference and addressed a number of questions in relation to the commuter car parks commitments that we had made. I gave very comprehensive answers to those questions, and I stand by those answers.