John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

This is a very important point. There has never been any intention that a piece of legislation on the Notice Paper would in any way mean that a matter relating, for example, to industrial relations or unfair dismissals, as in this case, would not be subject to questioning at question time. What is off limits—and you and your predecessors, including former distinguished President Senator Ferguson, have consistently ruled this—is such matters specifically being addressed. It has always been interpreted liberally—that is, with a lowercase l, Senator Macdonald, not an uppercase L—as long as specific legislation and its provisions have not been referred to. I respectfully suggest that if Senator Macdonald does not know that, and I rather think he would, Senator Ferguson certainly does, because he consistently ruled that for the whole time he occupied the chair which you are occupying now.