Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, on the point of order, clearly the senator is looking at standing order 73, which goes through a range of matters about which questions shall not be asked, such as ‘for an expression of opinion’ and ‘for a statement of the government’s policy’ and so on and so forth. It also includes in (g) ‘hypothetical matter’. In this respect, a question has been asked of the Leader of the Government in the Senate about these issues, and it is quite within the remit of this government to ask that question of the leader and for the leader to deal with it. Within that, we are talking about a real issue that is confronting us; it is not a hypothetical matter. But, of course, even within the framework of standing order 73 on rules for questions, there has always been—although it is not conceded in this instance—broad latitude to provide for the answer to the question.