Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, can I say at the outset that, on taking this point of order, what we have is a question which proffers, firstly, whether the minister agrees and, secondly, whether or not he wants to add any additional comments to those the opposition has made. The question taken by Senator Evans was a political question, fair and simple. Senator Evans is answering the question, which can be described in no other way than as a political question, as best he can. We have the ridiculous circumstance where the opposition have raised a point of order in relation to what can only be described as a very broad-ranging question to Senator Evans and they are now asking the minister to be directly relevant to that question, which Senator Evans is broadly answering.