Point of Order — Speaker’s Ruling—Wearing of Lapel Pins

Point of order, Mr Speaker. I just have two quick matters to raise. The first one is that I did note as the leader of the ACT Party was walking out that he was wearing an ACT Party pin. I just wanted to note that we genuinely take issue with the fact that wasn’t picked up. The second thing is—and this is a genuine attempt to clarify the ruling—

SPEAKER: Sorry, just a minute. Sorry, there are people engaging in conversations while a point of order is being taken.

RICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH: The second matter that I wanted to raise is just a genuine attempt to clarify the ruling you made in relation to clothing designed to convey a political message being unacceptable. I genuinely am seeking clarification as to the scope of that. It’s a matter of whether you are telling us—in which case, I’m quite happy to follow with my colleagues in relation to that—that you deem any flag to convey a political message. For example, do flags in relation to another State convey a political message or, in this case, does it only apply to the Palestinian flag? Otherwise, it’s hard for me to be able to provide adequate guidance, as the Green Party’s musterer, as to whether it only applies to the Palestinian flag or whether, for example, other flags including the American flag or Israeli flag also would apply when it came to rulings on pins of flags conveying political messages. Thank you.

SPEAKER: Thank you. I’m going to come back to you with a better outline than clearly was provided in the first case. We come now to the interrupted debate on the Land Transport (Clean Vehicle Standard) Amendment Bill (No 2). The debate is resumed.