Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I raise a point of order. Unfortunately, due to the timing, I couldn't raise it when I wanted to with the Chair of Committees. In the last division, I sought to have the division separated so that I could support the retention of the Smith bill definition of 'marriage' but also support—if I could loosely call it this—the Paterson bill in relation to the protection of celebrants. I asked the Chair of Committees if we could divide the questions so they could be voted on separately. The chair ruled against me. I was going to ask the chair if she could refer the matter to you for further consideration. My understanding always was that, whilst the Senate by leave agreed to deal with these matters as one debate, any senator has the right to ask for divisions to be done individually. I put that to you not to respond now, but could you review the chair's decision on refusing to allow those amendments to be split?