No. 17 - Questions
Questions seeking information
One of the ways in
which senators may seek to hold the executive government accountable for its
actions is by questioning ministers. Numerous opportunities exist for senators
to ask questions of ministers, most notably:
This guide deals with
questions asked during question time and questions placed on notice.
Questions may be
addressed to a minister relating to public affairs or matters of administration
for which the minister is responsible, or in respect of which the minister
represents another minister. A list of ministers and the portfolios they
represent is published in the Notice
Paper. Questions may not be addressed to parliamentary secretaries.
Questions may also be
addressed:
-
to other senators in relation to
business on the Notice Paper of which
such senators have charge, and
-
with notice or with the leave of the
Senate, to chairs of committees in relation to the activities of those
committees.
Most questions,
however, are put to ministers.
The provisions
relating to questions are contained in standing orders 72 to 74. Also see Chapter
19 of Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, 11th edition, Relations with the Executive Government.
Rules for questions
The rules for
questions are contained in standing order 73.
These rules are
interpreted by the chair so as not to restrict unduly the ability of senators
to ask questions on a wide variety of subjects. For instance, although
questions may not ask for a statement of government policy, it is in order for
a question to seek an explanation of government policy or the clarification of
a statement made by a minister. A question inviting a minister to comment on
opposition policies is strictly out of order, although questions seeking the
minister’s knowledge of how other policy proposals would affect matters within
that minister’s responsibility have been ruled in order.
The prohibition on
questions containing statements of fact, arguments, inferences, imputations etc. recognises
that the purpose of a question is to seek information and not to provide a
senator the opportunity to make a statement. This reasoning also underlies a
long-standing prohibition on the use of quotations in questions.
In practice, the chair has a discretion to allow
the inclusion in a question of so much material as is necessary to make the
question clear.
Question time
The operation of
question time is governed more by agreement and established practice than by
the standing orders. The current practice is for questions to be asked and
answered each sitting day from 2pm
(standing order 57—Routine of business) for
a period of approximately an hour.
The opportunity to
ask questions is provided for in standing order 72(1), but there is no
procedural rule requiring that ministers answer questions. It has long been
established that there is no obligation upon a minister to answer a question –
indeed the answering of questions has sometimes been referred to as a
‘courtesy’. In practice, however, there is a political cost borne by a
government or a minister in not answering questions – and a political benefit
in answering them deftly.
Question time is
drawn to a close each day by the Leader of the Government in the Senate asking
that further questions be placed on notice. The various party leaders and
independent senators have contingent notices which may be moved, seeking the
Senate’s agreement to move that question time be extended on any day until 28 questions, including supplementary
questions, have been asked and answered. These contingent notices are
rarely used, however, the last occasion being 31 August 1995.
Motions to extend
question time have occasionally been proposed as punitive remedies when
ministers have failed to comply with orders of the Senate. On 19 October 1999,
for example, question time was extended on several days in response to a
refusal by a minister to produce a document in accordance with an order of the
Senate (see Brief Guide No. 11—Orders for production of
documents)
—Answers
to questions
In answering a
question a minister may not debate it. Rather, an answer must be confined to
providing the information sought. In all cases the answer must be relevant to
the question. The President may require that ministers’ answers be relevant,
but cannot tell ministers how they should respond to questions.
—Time
limits for questions and answers
Time limits apply to
the asking and answering of questions (standing order 72(3)):
-
the asking of a question or a supplementary
question may not exceed one minute;
-
the answering of a question may not
exceed four minutes;
-
the answering of a supplementary
question may not exceed one minute.
Time limits were
first imposed in 1992 following concerns about the length of ministers’ answers
and a general discontent with the conduct of question time. The adoption of
time limits has not significantly affected the average number of questions and
supplementary questions asked each sitting day.
—Allocation
of questions
The standing orders
provide that a senator seeks the call (for instance, to ask a question) by
rising in his or her place to address the President. In practice, however, the
allocation of questions is determined by agreement. Current practice adopts the
principle of proportionality endorsed
by the Procedure Committee in its second report of 1995; that is, the chair
seeks to allocate questions between parties and independent senators as nearly
as practicable in proportion to their numbers in the Senate.
—Supplementary
questions
Following a
minister’s reply, a senator may, at the chair’s discretion, be called on to ask
a supplementary question. Supplementary questions must relate to or arise from
the answer to the original question. Once a rarity, supplementary questions now
account for about 40 per cent of all questions asked.
—Taking
questions on notice and providing further answers
Ministers may, in
responding to questions during question time, elect to take a question (or part
of a question) on notice. This indicates that the minister will seek further
information and provide it to the Senate at a later time. It is established
practice for ministers at the end of question time to make additional responses
to questions without notice. These responses, unless brief, are typically
incorporated in Hansard, with the
leave of the Senate, rather than being given orally.
—Motions
to take note of answers
At the end of
question time motions may be moved, without notice or leave, to take note of
answers given during question time, including further answers provided by
ministers. A senator speaking to such a motion may speak for 5 minutes, with
the total time on any given day not exceeding 30 minutes (standing order 72(4)). The call to speak
during this time is normally allocated on a similar basis to the allocation of
questions at question time.
Questions on notice
Questions asked in
the Senate at question time are asked without
notice, although a senator may informally advise a minister of the subject
of a proposed question. Where a senator seeks a detailed answer to a question,
particularly where statistical information is sought, that question is more
appropriately submitted in written form and placed on notice.
A senator places a
question on notice by signing the written question and delivering it to the
Questions Officer in the Senate Table Office. A senator may submit questions on
behalf of another. There is no limit on the number of questions a senator may
submit.
Table Office staff
examine questions for conformity with the standing orders before placing them
on the Notice Paper. Any problems
with questions are discussed with the senator’s office. If they cannot be
resolved they are referred to the President for determination. The process of
editing questions for publication is greatly assisted if the signed copy is
accompanied by an electronic version, sent by e-mail to the Senate Questions
Officer (Senate Questions (SEN), in
the Outlook parliamentary address list).
Each question is
allocated a number and published in the Notice
Paper. The printed version of each Notice
Paper indicates the numbers of all questions that remain unanswered. The
full text of all unanswered questions is published in the online version of the
Notice Paper, available at www.aph.gov.au/senate/work.
Ministers’ offices
and government departments are responsible for examining the printed Notice Paper to identify questions
asked. Questions placed on notice when the Senate is not sitting are forwarded
to ministers’ offices and published in the online version of the Notice Paper, allowing relevant action
to commence. This assists ministers in providing timely responses to questions.
Answers that have
been approved by the responsible minister are delivered to the Clerk. In
practice, answers are lodged with the Table Office, which supplies the senator
who asked a question with a copy of the reply and arranges for the question and
reply to be printed in Hansard. Publication of the answer is authorised by
the standing orders once it has been delivered to the Clerk.
—The 30-day rule
A senator who places
a question on notice and does not receive a reply within 30 days may after
question time seek from the relevant minister in the Senate an explanation of
why an answer has not been provided (standing order 74(5)).
If the minister
provides an explanation, the senator may move without notice that the Senate take note of the explanation.
If the minister fails
to provide a satisfactory explanation, the senator may move, without notice, a motion with regard to the minister’s
failure to provide either an answer or an explanation. The motion moved at
this stage may be for any relevant purpose – for instance, a motion to order
that the answer be tabled by a specific date, or a motion to censure the
minister for the delay in answering.
It is common for a
senator to advise a minister informally of his or her intention to seek an
explanation under the 30-day rule, to improve the chances of receiving an
answer or a satisfactory explanation. This is especially the case where the
minister represents a minister in the House of Representatives and may need to
seek an explanation from that minister’s office.
This process is not
available once an answer to the question is provided.
An annotation appears
in the Notice Paper each day
indicating which questions have remained unanswered for more than 30 days. The
30-day period is counted from the day the question is placed on notice, not the
date of publication in the Notice Paper.
—The
effects of prorogation on questions
One of the effects of
prorogation of the Parliament during an election period is that all business on
the Notice Paper remains current
until the day before the next sitting, at which time it lapses. This has the
following consequences:
-
any outstanding questions on notice
should be answered and sent to the Table Office for publication and printing in
Hansard. Advice to this effect is
routinely forwarded to government departments at the start of the election
period
-
any questions remaining unanswered when
business lapses need to be resubmitted in order to again appear on the Notice Paper. Table Office staff to
write to senators during the election period, inquiring whether they wish to
renew such questions when sittings resume.
Questions submitted
after a prorogation and before the new sittings appear on the first Notice Paper of the new session, and the
count for the 30-day rule is taken to begin on the first sitting day.
Need assistance?
For assistance with
any of the matters covered by this guide, government senators or their staff
should contact the Clerk Assistant (Table) on extension 3020; and
non-government senators or their staff should contact the Clerk Assistant
(Procedure) on extension 3380.
Questions on notice
can be lodged with the Senate Table Office (SG 25). Inquiries relating to questions
on notice should be directed to the Questions Officer on extension 3014.
February 2005
This publication is available electronically at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/pubs/guides/index.htm
|
