Speaker’s Rulings — Oral Questions—Transfer

Members, yesterday when the House reached question No. 4, a member sought leave to transfer the question back to the Minister to whom it had been originally directed. I put the leave to the House. I regret to inform the House that I should not have done that. Previous Speakers have made it clear that the matter of transfer is over to the Government and the Speaker should not put leave to transfer the question back. I direct members to the very good ruling of Mr Speaker Carter at Speaker’s ruling 154/5. In future, I will not put leave to transfer questions back, and will reinstitute the view of Speaker Carter that to make such a request is disorderly. We come to oral questions.