Mr CREAN (2:54 PM) —My question again is to the Minister for Financial Services and Regulation. Minister, do you stand by your government's unequivocal guarantee that the price increase will never be 10 per cent as a result of your new tax package? Are you aware that Rentlo, a prominent national appliance rental firm, has informed customers in Victoria by letter, and has confirmed on their telephone hotline, that the Rentlo charges `direct-debited from your bank, financial institution or credit card will be altered to include the 10 per cent GST, in accordance with your current direct-debit or credit card authority'? Minister, as Rentlo is putting up its prices by a full 10 per cent, aren't you continuing to mislead the Australian people by claiming that no prices will increase by the full 10 per cent?

Mr Reith —Can we have that document tabled now?

Mrs Crosio —I rise on a point of order. Could you explain to the House, Mr Speaker, how the minister and the Leader of Government Business could possibly speak when he was not given the call and the microphone was on?

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Prospect will resume her seat. The Leader of the House was not given the call and his microphone was not switched on.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —The Leader of the House was not given the call.

Mr Reith —I seek the call, Mr Speaker.

Mr SPEAKER —The Leader of the House has been recognised.

Mr Reith —On a point of order, I asked the shadow minister to table the document that he was reading from.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —I remind members in the House that I recognised the member for Prospect and that the chair in its ruling has been entirely consistent. I recognise the Manager of Opposition Business.

Mr McMullan —Mr Speaker, I am seeking from you under which standing order the Leader of the House has the right to make that request.

Mr SPEAKER —I have just indicated to the Manager of Opposition Business that the chair has been entirely consistent in its ruling, and it was within that consistency that the member for Prospect was also recognised. The question was whether or not the Deputy Leader of the Opposition would table the document to which he was referring.

Mr Crean —I rise on a point of order, Mr Speaker. I am asking under which standing order that request can be made of me by them, given that it is my choice—and I will be doing it at the appropriate time—to seek leave to table it.

Mr SPEAKER —The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. I call the Leader of the House.

Mr Reith —Mr Speaker, there is no point of order. There is no standing order—

Ms Macklin —There is no standing order!

Mr Crean —It was a killer punch!

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —I remind all members of the House that, regardless of who occupies this chair, the decision of who is recognised either in their place or at the dispatch box is a decision for the chair. I call the Leader of the House.

Mr Reith —Mr Speaker, every day, without the benefit of a standing order, the opposition seek from government ministers that they table their documents; every day, without a foundation standing order—which is proof positive that the practice of this House is to provide members with the opportunity to seek the tabling of a document which a member of the House is referring to. It happens every day of the week for the government. I put it to you that on that basis it is perfectly reasonable for the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to be provided an opportunity to table that document. We all know that he does not want to table it because he has been misrepresenting and misquoting it.

Mr SPEAKER —The Leader of the House will resume his seat.

Mr McMullan —On that point of order, Mr Speaker: the Leader of the House is absolutely wrong. Standing order 321, under which we seek documents to be tabled by ministers, explicitly says a document `relating to public affairs quoted from by a Minister or an Assistant Minister' shall be tabled `if required by any Member'. It does not refer to documents of the nature referred to by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

Honourable members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —I will deal very rapidly with the Manager of Opposition Business, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the Treasurer if I need to do so. The least that can be expected of members in the House is common courtesy. So far as the Speaker is concerned, there has been a request made by the Leader of the House for a document to be tabled, and it is merely that request to which the Deputy Leader of the Opposition can choose to respond or not to respond. It was in that context that I allowed the request to be made.

Mr Crean —Mr Speaker, I have already responded. I will seek leave to table the document at the appropriate time—of my choosing, not of theirs.

Mr Leo McLeay —Mr Speaker, my point of order is on the action that you have just taken. In recent days you have told members of the opposition we cannot take a point of order unless we quote the standing order. You have now allowed the Leader of the House to take a point of order on a standing order that he himself has admitted does not exist. You then asked the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to produce a document asked for by the Leader of the House. It is not within your prerogative as the chair to do that; you have to deal with the standing orders. If he admits there is no standing order to ask you to do it, how can you do it?

Mr SPEAKER —As the occupier of the chair I have already made it clearly evident to everybody in this House that I had in fact allowed the member for Prospect to raise a matter of concern to her without specifically asking her to refer to a standing order, and precisely the same latitude was extended to a government member. Subsequently I have not required—repeat: have not required—the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to take any particular action. I have invited him to do so, he has declined to do so and for that reason the matter is concluded and the minister has the call.

Mr Rudd —Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. Last Thursday you warned me on this specific point when you said that I was obliged, if I had a point of order, to raise that point of order under a specific standing order. My failure to do so caused you to sit me down and subsequently to warn me.

Mr SPEAKER —I have dealt with that matter. The minister has the call.

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Griffith is warned! The member for Griffith is aware of the fact that any reflection on the chair is highly disorderly.

Mr HOCKEY (Minister for Financial Services and Regulation) —Mr Speaker, I am happy to refer the matter to the ACCC if the member for Hotham will give me the document. The member for Hotham has made some allegations. I would like to see the documentation that supports those allegations. Where is the documentation? It is a reasonable question. The member for Hotham comes into this House and makes a number of assertions. When the member for Hotham gives me the document, I am happy to have a look at it, answer the question and refer it to the ACCC.

Mr Crean —Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table two documents. One is the one I sought to table before from the ACCC in terms of the 12.4 per cent rise—which you have denied—and the second is the letter from Rentlo, together with the follow up telephone call that the GST will result in a full 10 per cent hike—

Leave granted.