Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, it distresses me to have to take a point of order on relevance. It is quite clear that the minister has not addressed the one issue raised by Senator Barnett. He only raised one issue: what is the cost. Talking about what Senator Barnett might or might not have done at estimates cannot be anywhere near the requirement of ‘directly relevant’ to the question of the cost of the rollout in Tasmania. Mr President, can I ask you to say to the minister that if he does not know the question he should sit down. He should not be allowed to prattle on about what opposition senators might have done at estimates or elsewhere. If he cannot answer the question, Mr President, you have an obligation to sit him down.