Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Standing order 193(3) reads:

A senator shall not use offensive words against either House of Parliament or of a House of a state or territory parliament, or any member of such House, or against a judicial officer, and all imputations of improper motives and all personal reflections on those Houses, members or officers shall be considered highly disorderly.

I agree with the intent of this motion but to call the Prime Minister ‘unprincipled’ is not just a personal reflection, and it is more than an imputation of improper motive. I have asked you, Mr President, to rule a number of times before on this very matter. I just think we are getting into the practice where 193(3) is no longer being applied to debate in this place. If that is to be the case, why not abolish it? Why not get rid of it? If this continues, I will so move. If we have standing orders which by the efflux of time or by the slow movement of practice do not mean what they say then we should remove them from the standing orders. I do not agree with this ruling, and I think it is a matter that the Procedure Committee perhaps might look at. But if it is going to be a vestigial component of the standing orders, it ought to be removed.