Sue Lines (President) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday Senators Birmingham and Wong asked me to review the tape in relation to some questions. I've done that—and I thought it was you as well, Senator Birmingham, but I think was just Senator Wong, so my apologies. So Senator Wong asked me to review questions from Senator Hume about the budget, to assess whether her first supplementary questions were in order. The primary question asked whether recently announced payments were reflected in the budget, while the supplementary question went to budget assumptions about the cash rate. The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Birmingham, suggested that both questions went to the accuracy of budget forecasts. With the benefit of that explanation, the connection between the questions is clear; however, I'm not sure that it was obvious from the questions themselves. I draw senators' attention to the statements I made on 1 August last year, encouraging senators to make the connections between the primary question and answer to the supplementary questions clear.