George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

On a point of order, Mr President: with 28 seconds to go, nothing we have heard from the minister so far has been directly relevant to the question of whether a statement was made or not. The question could not have been narrower. As I pointed out to you on the last sitting day, an answer cannot be all prologue, particularly if the question is narrowly focused on one issue of fact—was a statement made or not? If you allow this minister to occupy the entire two minutes with prologue and commentary, you will be condoning a defiance of the sessional order.