John Hogg (President) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz, I am not going to debate it with you. I have ruled on the first issue. I ruled that the question was out of order. The opportunity still remains. The debate that is taking place at this stage, while very interesting, is not helping, I believe, the conduct of the business of this chamber. I will continue to stick with my initial ruling. I am not going to change that. I said that I would take it away and look at the situation, and I will come back with a more detailed response to the chamber. I would advise those in the opposition that if they want to raise that question subsequently in this question time they should do so by leave. I would then have no problem putting that question to the chamber. But I believe that in the first instance Senator Abetz did have the opportunity to raise the issue by leave and chose not to. He chose to go down the path—