John Hogg (President) Share this | Hansard source

Order! Can we have silence. On the point of order: we are in a trial, as I outlined in the statement to the Senate at the start of question time. I have been pretty fair, I believe, in allowing question time to flow, and I have tried to listen very carefully to the points that have been made in the questions by all those who have asked questions today. There will be issues that arise out of the new system, which I would be very reluctant at this very early stage of the trial to make a pronouncement upon. Suffice it to say that, on the points of order that have been raised at this stage, all I will rule at this stage is that Senator Carr is obliged to answer that part of the question that applies to his portfolio. I will review the points of order that have been made today. I will review the primary questions, the secondary questions and, as a matter of fact, all questions that have been asked to check the issue of relevance and to make sure that, as we progress through this trial, there is a little bit of patience and that we iron out these chinks, if there are chinks there in the first place.