Speaker’s Rulings — Ministerial Responsibility—Questions for Oral Answer

Before the House comes to questions for oral answer, I remind members that last Wednesday I indicated that I would examine replies given by the Minister of Education in answer to questions about reports he had received relating to changes in funding provided to independent schools.

The practice members have adopted of asking whether a Minister has received reports has resulted in a reasonably broad interpretation of ministerial responsibility. This broad interpretation allowed in questions flows through to the replies. A Minister in reply may indicate any report he or she has received. These may be official reports, but the Minister in replying is not restricted to official reports. However, the reports that are the subject of a reply must relate to the subject matter of the question, and to some matter for which the Minister is responsible.

Speaker’s ruling 155/4 establishes that, in replying to a question about a report, the Minister can set out what is in the report. The Minister may include statements from reports in his or her reply, in the same way that statements may be included in questions.

On Wednesday the Minister in his replies addressed reports from the National Party. The Minister was entitled to do so in so far as they related to education policy. However, the Minister has no responsibility for the National Party policies contained in those reports. It is not in order for the Minister to give an opinion about those policies, or to be hypothetical about their implications.