Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

President, I raise a point of order on the standing order related to the direct relevance of an answer. I raise this point of order particularly about the direct relevance. This chamber, early in my career, made a change to standing orders that went from requiring relevancy to requiring direct relevancy. This question could not have been a more narrowly or precisely worded question. It was 11 words long, and it asked the minister, very clearly, whether the current rate of real wages growth was positive or negative. I accept that he has been broadly relevant to the question, but I contest he is not being directly relevant to the question, and I invite you to draw him to be directly relevant to the question.