Robert Ray (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I would like to raise a delayed a point of order which I did not take in order not to disrupt question time. Earlier today, you rebuked Senator Evans for interjecting—I make no comment on that. He took a point of order and you sat him down midpoint in the point of order, which is your right under standing order 197(5), which says you may hear argumentation or not. But I have to say that is normally applied by presidents to someone who is in the middle of a frivolous point of order or is argumentative in a point of order. That is traditionally the way it has been applied in this chamber. After you sat Senator Evans down—this is my concern—you indicated to the chamber that you sat him down because he was provoking further interjections. I do not think, on reflection, that is a particularly good ruling and a good enough reason to sit someone down at midpoint. I would ask you, Mr President, to ponder on this and come back to the chamber as to whether we really want to adopt House of Representatives practice, where the presiding officers regularly sit down people taking points of order before hearing the substance of the point of order. I would ask you to reflect on that and report back to the chamber at some stage.