Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, on a point of order: leave is not required. When you look at standing order 72(1), you see it states:

... questions may be put ... to other senators relating to any matter connected with the business on the Notice Paper of which such senators have charge.

When you look at page 43 of the Notice Paper, you see that there is an inquiry which is extant, and Senator Hurley is chair of the committee which is writing that report. In support of that, I refer to standing order 38(5), which says that the chairman of a committee shall sign such a report and is responsible for that. That reinforces the fact that Senator Hurley indeed has charge of a matter related to business on the Notice Paper. So certainly 72(1) allows a question to be put to other senators relating to any matter connected with the business on the Notice Paper of which such senators have charge. On the basis of those two arguments, Senator Abetz’s question is in order.