Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Further to the issue of parliamentary secretaries and assistant ministers, could you please inform us of the distinction between the role of a parliamentary secretary and the role of an assistant minister. Could you tell us: if those responsibilities are different, why can’t we ask questions of a person acting in their capacity of assistant minister?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lingiari. I have ruled on that matter. If the House chooses to change the standing orders, that is a matter for the House, but, while the standing orders remain as they are now, it is the responsibility of the chair to administer them as they are written.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is: can you tell us of the distinction between the role of a member as a parliamentary secretary and the role of a member as an assistant minister? Having being a parliamentary secretary, I know what a parliamentary secretary’s role is, but I have absolutely no idea what the role of assistant minister is.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For the benefit of the honourable member for Lingiari, the two members he refers to both still carry the title of parliamentary secretary and therefore, for the purposes of standing order 98, are still parliamentary secretaries.