John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Earlier today Senator Brandis made a statement in relation to proceedings before the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee and a ruling of the chair, which the committee referred to me. I tabled my correspondence to the chair of the committee. In the correspondence I confirmed that her ruling was in accordance with the practices and precedents of the Senate and I explained the basis on which I came to that conclusion.

As I made clear, the issue is not the meaning of individual words, which may in themselves be innocuous; it is the combination of words that constituted a personal reflection on a witness who, under standing order 193, is a person who attracts protection from such reflections. It is not a difficult concept and nor is it a difficult concept that respect for the chair is fundamental to the effective operation of this place.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to ask a question of the President.

Leave granted.

Mr President, this morning in making the withdrawal of the words that were the subject of your ruling I asked you, in light of the precedents that I then referred to and that had obviously not been considered by you when you wrote the letter of 21 March to Senator Crossin, to reconsider your ruling. Am I to understand that the statement you have just made to the Senate constitutes your reconsideration of that ruling and, if that is so, is that reconsideration embodied in the form of a document that among other things deals with the precedents to which I have referred you?

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I simply reaffirmed the statement made in the correspondence to Senator Crossin, as chair of that committee. I just made the point quite clear, and I thought it was clear in the statement that I have just made now. I did not separate out the constituent parts of that. Mine was a statement of the whole. You asked me to look at an individual part. I did not make a determination in respect of the individual part of that statement that I made to Senator Crossin; it was in respect of the context of the statement of the whole.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For clarification, is the Senate to understand that the statement you just made is your response to the request made by me this morning?

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, it certainly is, Senator Brandis.