Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—Madam Acting Deputy President, I rise on a point of order and indicate that this is a matter arising out of question time. I would simply ask that you communicate this matter to the President for his ruling some time tomorrow. The point of order relates to an incident in question time where Senator Ian Macdonald raised with the President the following. Senator Macdonald asserted: 'The minister in his answer accuses the opposition of wanting to drown children.' The President quite rightly said: 'If that is what was said, it needs to be withdrawn.' The minister at the time against whom this accusation was made, Senator Carr, said, 'Mr President, it is not what was said.' He then later said:

What I have said is the opposition is crying crocodile tears on human rights standards, given their policy was to tow boats back to sea, the consequence of which was that they risked people drowning at sea.

In fact, the Hansard records that Senator Carr said, 'You think that drowning people at sea is a question of respecting human rights.' Given that the Hansard record shows that that is what Senator Carr actually said, given the President's ruling—and I accept that he did not necessarily hear that which Senator Carr said—and given that Hansard has now faithfully recorded that, there is no doubt in my mind that Senator Carr misled the President—that is one issue. But the simple fact is that that which was said does need to be withdrawn, and I would ask you to draw that to the President's attention. I thank the Senate for its indulgence.