Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

First of all to the point of order: I thank the Manager of Opposition Business for observing the same protocol that I did in raising what you're saying is a similar issue—waiting until the end of the statement before the issue was raised. I do respect that.

When the issue was raised in the previous term, it was after the now shadow Treasurer had given a ministerial statement. Whichever rules you bring down we'll all follow, Mr Speaker, but I do submit there was a big distinction. Very simply, that ministerial statement by the now shadow Treasurer specifically referred to the Labor Party; it specifically referred to announced Labor Party policies; it contained a characterisation of his view of divisions within the Labor Party. That's always outside of ministerial statements.

What was in the ministerial statement that we just heard was the economic context that the government is now in. I wasn't here for the very start, but if there was anything in that statement that, for example, referred to policies or comments that had been made by the now opposition, that engaged in that sort of political dialogue, then that should not be in a ministerial statement. But if we create a situation where you can't talk about the context of the policies you're announcing, I think we'd actually be retreating a long way from what this principle has always been.

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