Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will now resume his seat. I'm going to rule on this in a second. The member for Isaacs is warned. How as Deputy Manager of Opposition Business he thought that would be helpful when I was trying to hear the Leader of the House is absolutely beyond me—and if he wasn't in the position he is in he'd be out of the chamber. I have listened very carefully to the Leader of the Opposition. I listened carefully the other day to the Minister for Justice. The Leader of the House—and I ask for the forbearance of all members of the House while I complete my remarks—is quite right in saying that that is not what the Minister for Justice said. He didn't refer to any legislation. He did make a very specific statement.

On the Manager of Opposition Business's point of order, I'm very familiar with the Practice and I'm very familiar with the pages. I spend a lot of time reading the Practice. And he's right when he says that offensive remarks directed at individuals have been asked to be withdrawn regularly. As far back as Speaker Snedden there have been occasions where remarks to a group have been asked to be withdrawn as well. Can I say on the history of all that that it does cut both ways; you could pick what you want to out of all of those precedents. But I have reflected on what the minister said. He didn't say what the Leader of the House said. In fact, if he had framed it that way, whilst I wouldn't have approved, as I said the other day, that would have been a different matter. But in terms of what I heard I'm going to ask the minister to withdraw that and continue on with his answer.

See this speech in context