Scott Ryan (President) | Hansard source

Order! I have granted both leaders at the table some discretion, more than I grant any other senator when it comes to raising points of order. I would ask that it not be stretched further for debate across the table.

Firstly, Senator Birmingham's point of order: he correctly read out the standing order. I think it would assist senators if they are asking questions if they provided a reference, as has been done in customer practice to a media report, which allows the claim to at least be verified. This did not do that. I'm not going to rule the question out of order, because it is consistent with past practice that I can ask the minister to answer part of the question. But I will ask senators, if they are going to use examples or case studies, to keep that standing order in mind. One of the ways to address that has been to refer to a report in a media piece so at least, if the minister wished to take it on notice, there would be details. In this case, it would be very hard because I didn't hear reference to an external reference. Senator Ruston.