Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I will say that the minister has been speaking for eight seconds so it is difficult to make a strict judgement on direct relevance at that point in a one-minute answer. Secondly, I'm not willing to rule that a minister who is strictly talking about his conversations or discussions with the Prime Minister is not directly relevant to a question regarding whether he briefed the cabinet, given that the Prime Minister is the head of cabinet. However, the answer to that must be narrow in its scope. It is not up to me to instruct a minister how to answer a question. It is up to others to judge or debate after question time. Senator Colbeck to continue.