DAVID GARRETT (ACT) Link to this
I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek your assistance with regard to a supplementary question I asked on Tuesday of the Minister for Climate Change Issues. His answer was that the figures I sought were to be found in the regulatory impact statement on the original emissions trading scheme legislation. I have looked carefully through that regulatory impact statement, and I am unable to find such figures. I respectfully draw your attention to Speaker’s ruling 167/7, which, as I read it, states that if a Minister is in error he or she should correct that error at the earliest opportunity, which should be at the beginning of question time. I wonder whether I have missed something or whether the Minister would like to comment.
Mr SPEAKERI have made it very clear to members that they should not litigate Ministers’ answers by way of points of order. If the member believes that the Minister was in error in that answer, the member has the chance to ask further questions about it or to take it up directly with the Minister, but he should not do it by way of a point of order. If he believes that the matter is serious enough, if he believes that the Minister has misled the House, he can write to me about it. But he should not try to litigate it by way of a point of order.