Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Keneally, resume your seat! If you want to keep showing this amount of disrespect to the chair on the first day of the final fortnight, it's going to be a very slow question time as I constantly interrupt questions and answers. I do ask, while it is a very vibrant chamber, for people to at least heed me and pay a little bit of respect to the chair when I'm calling people to order.

On the point of order, Senator Keneally, your question contained a number of pejorative phrases in terms of quoting people. When questions contain pejorative phrases, I'm listening carefully. In comparison, for example, the first question asked today was very specific and there was no latitude for the minister to stray. But, when questions contain politically loaded phrases, I don't think it's out of order for a minister to be able to respond in kind. That said, this was a quotation and not an assertion on your behalf. I accept that. I'm listening carefully to the minister's answer. He has 15 seconds remaining to address the question.