Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's understandable that ministers would want to correct an answer, and that is the right and proper thing to do. But are they entitled to then stray into making another political point in the course of that correction, and does that go against the spirit of what that mechanism is allowed to do?

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

There are a couple principles there. They're adding to an answer, and I listened very carefully. I presume the member for Chifley is referring to the answer that was just made. I felt it was short and concise. I concede that, at one level, it was close to the line, but what the minister did was anchor it on the two figures. I felt he explained how the $16 million figure was wrong. In fact, it was $11 million, and he explained what the $16 million figure was. If the minister had gone on to try to have an answer, I certainly would have pulled him up.