Points of Order — Apologies in the Chamber

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Late last evening the Hon Damien O’Connor apologised for a minor misleading of the House yesterday during question time. Subsequently, I believe, you offered some apology for an altercation between you and me at the time of that question.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: And I have sent the member a copy.

I have not received it.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: I sent it about a minute ago, after I received a phone call.

I was in the House a minute ago, so I have not received it. My point is simply this. Firstly, I think the way in which question time was conducted yesterday got a little bit fractious, and it is not particularly pleasing for a member to hear a Minister correctly, get into an altercation with the Speaker, then find that that Minister sneaked into the House at 5 minutes to 10 that night, when no one is really listening, to make his apology. I accept that the answer will be that he has to make his apology at the first available opportunity, and that, of course, with the House being in Committee, was at 5 to 10 last night. I ask you to consider whether in future when Ministers make mistakes in question time that lead to the sort of situation we had yesterday, they should be required to make their correction and apology at the start of question time on the following day, so that those around the country who do follow Parliament and do not want to stay up until 5 to 10 at night, will know that the Minister made a mistake and that the Opposition was right all along.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Of course, the point about the matter is that that was with the leave of the House, so no one objected, but I take the point the member makes, and I will give it consideration.

Question Time