Sue Lines (President) Share this | Hansard source

Before we move to question time I was asked on Thursday to review the Hansard, and I make the following statement.

During question time on 28 July I undertook to review two lines of questions to determine whether they met the guidelines in Odgers' Australian Senate Practice that:

… supplementary questions are appropriate only for the purposes of elucidating information arising from the original question and answer. They are not appropriate for the purpose of introducing additional or new material or proposing a new question, even though such a question might be related to the subject matter of the original question.

Minister Wong asked me to review questions asked by Senator McKenzie relating to the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Indonesia. Senator Birmingham identified that the questions each related to answers given by Minister Watt on the subject the previous day. If that was the intention, the questions could have been framed so as to make the connection clear from the outset. Senator Birmingham asked me to review a line of questions from Senator Ciccone on the same topic. In my view this read from the original answer to the supplementary questions here was easier to discern, and no one took a point of order in relation to those questions.

Senate P ractice has changed since President McClelland provided the guidance on supplementary questions in 1986. In September 1996 President Reid noted:

… many supplementary questions have now departed from these principles and have simply become additional questions.

In August 2018 President Ryan noted:

… the Senate has become, whether it should or not, somewhat more liberal in its application of those provisions …

When supplementary questions were introduced, they were meant as a way of clarifying the answer to the primary question. Now they almost always flow from the original question rather than its answer. This is no doubt because senators write their supplementary questions before the primary question is answered. If senators want to return to the original intention of supplementary questions, I'd be happy to refer that matter to the Procedures Committee. In the meantime, I encourage senators to make the connection from the primary question and answer to the supplementary questions clear.