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

Mr President, on the question of relevance: I rose, with two seconds to go and, by the time you acknowledged me, the time had expired. By the time the time had expired the minister had not addressed the question, in defiance to your direction to him to come to the question. That is the consequence of rulings which say: ‘Up until the very end of the period allowed for answering the question, a minister can engage in commentary, prologue and political badinage.’ Your ruling does not operate successfully, Mr President, when you have ministers prepared to defy you, as the Leader of the Government in the Senate just did, preventing the opposition from taking a point of order and preventing you from enforcing the sessional orders until the time has expired.