Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection. People leaving Australia declare that the information they provide on the Outgoing Passenger Card is: 'true, correct and complete.' On his Outgoing Passenger Card for his trip to China, what did the Minister for Human Services declare was the main reason for overseas travel—'Business', 'Visiting friends or relatives', 'Holiday', 'Employment' or 'Other'? If the minister does not have this information now, could he please advise the House once it is accessed?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left will cease interjecting.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: the standing orders are very clear—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will resume his seat for a second. Members will be well aware that I want to hear from the Leader of the House and the Manager of Opposition Business, and, when I hear from them, I actually want to be able to hear the words they are saying. So I am going to call the Leader of the House and listen to him.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: the Standing Orders and the House of Representatives Practice make it very clear that ministers cannot be asked questions about matters that are not within their own responsibility as ministers. This is a question about a private matter to do with the minister which could not possibly be within the knowledge of the minister for immigration. The question yesterday was out of order. This could not possibly be in order because the minister for immigration could not know the answer to that question—nor is it the minister for immigration's business to know the answer to that question, which is a private matter. This is a fishing expedition by the opposition. A question about whether someone had a traffic infringement notice because they ran a red light would be the kind of question these people are trying to ask in question time—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House has made his point.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is not a place for fishing expeditions. This is a place for facts and issues.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House has made his point.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on the point of order. The Leader of the House raises two issues: (1) whether it is within the responsibility of the minister being asked, and (2) whether it is reasonable for the minister to know the answer to the question. On the first of those issues, there is no doubt the minister has responsibility for these cards—absolutely no doubt. It is squarely within his responsibility. On the second part, as to whether it is reasonable for him to know, I draw two things to your attention: (1) the question actually says at the end, 'If you don't have that information, will you undertake to provide it to the House?' And (2) yesterday we had a question on these exact cards with respect to another country, and the minister for immigration would have easily known that a question of this nature was coming—

Mr Whiteley interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Braddon will cease interjecting.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and may well have the information with him now.

Honourable members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members will cease interjecting. The first part of the question certainly went to the minister's responsibilities. I have listened very carefully to both the Leader of the House and the Manager of Opposition Business. It cannot really be for me as Speaker to judge whether the question is reasonable or not. Ministers are quite entitled to answer in the way they see fit and to provide further information later if they wish to, or to answer the question on notice indeed. So I am going to call the minister.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much to the shadow minister for his question. Obviously there are two points to make here. The first is that there are millions of people in movements across the borders each year, and I have not brought the passenger cards down to question time with me—nor could I expect to have availed myself of that information, and nor would it be appropriate for me to do so, because of the privacy issues involved. I think that demonstrates that this question was nothing more than a stunt.

The second point I would make—which is a very serious one—is that, for several days now, the government has been contemplating how to deal with very serious issues, including those which the member who asked this particular question has been doing media on but has not sought to ask one question in this place on. The fact that he would waste his time on this stunt question and not ask a substantive question on the significant issue of the day, which is how this government, compassionately—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will resume his seat. I was going to make the point—and I will make it now, even though the minister has finished his answer: I am allowing tough questions, but, when those questions are asked, I am going to hear the answers without a wall of interjections, or I will deal with those who are interjecting.