Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister rule out expanding the size of the parliament?

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! When the House comes to order—

Honourable members interjecting—

The minister for employment, we're trying to hear the answer. The Prime Minister has the call.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take the interjection from those opposite, which was about bubbles. This is extraordinary. At a time when there's a war in the Middle East, when there are significant economic impacts—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will pause.

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! The manager is entitled to raise his point of order, and he shall do so now.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It goes to relevance. The question could not be simpler. It's the second in this area, and the Prime Minister should come—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Resume your seat. The Leader of the House.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just on the point of order, I refer to page 568 of Practice where it says, 'It is relevant to contrast the action of the government with another point of view.' It's exactly what the Prime Minister is doing.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister, I think, had said about 21 words. The manager further to the point of order? We're just trying to deal with this.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's not what the Prime Minister was doing in his answer.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't know what the Prime Minister was saying, because he was about 20 words into an answer. We won't be able to take any more points of order on relevance. We've already taken that point. The manager raised the point of order. I'm going to listen to the Prime Minister, and I will ensure that he is directly—

The Leader of the Opposition, we're trying to deal with the point of order. If you could assist the House, that would be great. I appreciate that. The Prime Minister needs his answer to be directly relevant to the question. Once again, I'm not able to deliver a yes/no answer for the manager on this occasion. I know you're keen on that, but I'm keen to make sure the Prime Minister is directly relevant. He shall continue.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was responding, of course, to an interjection from those opposite. Let me make three points. I made two before, so I'll make three and see if they get it. One is that I am satisfied with the current number of seats in the House of Representatives. That's 150, with 12 senators from each state. That's point 1. Point 2 is that I'm also very satisfied with the composition of the current parliament!

A government member interjecting

There are some over there as well; it's true. And I like some of those over there too, to be fair!

Point 3 is that I have been very privileged to have the best campaign director I've ever seen in Paul Erickson. If I were to say to Paul Erickson, 'We've got 94 seats, but how about we throw it all up in the air and see how it lands?' I reckon Paul Erickson would have a pretty clear response.