Speaker’s Rulings — Questions for Oral Answer

On Wednesday, 26 February 2003 the Hon Murray McCully raised a point of order concerning the processes for the acceptance of an oral question and the determination of ministerial responsibility.

Standing Order 367 requires notices of oral questions to be delivered to the Clerk each sitting day, and for 12 questions to be accepted. This process of acceptance may involve considerable negotiation, and may involve Ministers indicating whether or not matters come within their areas of ministerial responsibility, if there is question about this.

A Minister’s word about his or her own portfolio responsibility area must be accepted. Where a Minister indicates a question is outside his or her area of portfolio responsibility, or challenges its validity, acceptance of the question must be reconsidered. If ministerial answerability cannot be adequately established, the question cannot be accepted and would ultimately be disallowed by the Speaker, if it were inadvertently accepted.

In order to avoid this happening and to save the question for the member, the Clerk’s Office goes to considerable length to negotiate rewording of questions. Like any process of negotiation this will of necessity involve some give and take. The Clerk’s Office will accept a question when it considers that it is in order. But ultimately it is the Speaker who must rule upon whether a question is in order.

All issues relating to the acceptance of a question should be raised with the Clerk’s Office up until the commencement of question time in the House. Only during questions for oral answer in the House will I consider points raised about whether or not a question is in order, and rule accordingly. If members or Ministers have any doubts about a question, I expect them to be raised with the Clerk’s Office and resolved as far as possible through a process of negotiation, prior to 11.30 am when the oral questions accepted for that day are published to the Parliament web site.

In this regard I draw members’ attention to Speaker’s ruling 123/6. It is the oral questions printed and circulated with the Order Paper in the Chamber that are the questions for that day. Publication on the web site is a courtesy, and does not give an oral question any particular status.

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Thank you for that ruling. It has helped to clarify a number of issues. It does raise one point, which maybe at some stage you will make a comment on. If a member, as Mr McCully did, puts down a question with the Clerk, and a Minister has an issue about that question and asks for some alteration or change to the question, then there should be an opportunity for the member to be notified and to have opportunity to comment. In your ruling I did not hear you provide for that opportunity.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: I am sorry; that was assumed.

I think it would be important that there be an interchange if there is something not right with the question—that the member be given that opportunity.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Absolutely, and I thank the member for raising that point.