Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Deputy President, on a point of order. I am concerned that Senator McKim is either acting in defiance of your rulings or is not understanding your rulings. The motion before the chamber is one to suspend standing orders. The debate, that you have been seeking to inform Senator McKim that he should be undertaking, is one about why it is that the motion itself needs to be considered now and warrants the suspension of standing orders. Just framing his statements with the words 'This is urgent because' and then going on to debate the policy substance of the motion he seeks to have debated is not mounting a case in relation to the suspension of standing orders. Thank you, Deputy President, for your ruling, but I would certainly urge all senators to understand the nuance of what the question before the chair is and relevance to that particular question.