Mr SWAN (3:40 PM) —Mr Speaker, my question to you concerns today's question time and it concerns the number of calls, warnings and suspensions and their distribution across the chamber. Could I ask you to review the Hansard from today and report back as to whether you believe that it is accurate to chart the events in this question time when we had something like 15 people called, some on multiple occasions on our side of the House—

The SPEAKER —The member for Lilley will resume his seat.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop —Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. Standing orders prevent members from reflecting on rulings of the chair, and implicit in that question is a reflection on your rulings and therefore it should be ruled out of order.

The SPEAKER —The member for Mackellar will resume her seat. The Manager of Opposition Business has asked a question that I deem to be in order. He and I have discussed these things before and he knows the point at which it would not be reasonable for the question to stand.

Mr SWAN —Mr Speaker, I am not seeking to reflect on the chair; I am seeking to assist the chair for future question times. Part of the problem is that there is a feeling that some on the other side are not necessarily called or warned as frequently as those on this side. As you are well aware, there has been a barrage from both sides of the parliament today, but I do not think the call sheet reflects that.

The SPEAKER —The member for Lilley and members on both sides of the House may be amused, even critical of me, when they discover that one of the things I have been doing in up weeks is looking at tapes of question time under not only my regime but the regimes of previous Speakers in the time that I have been in the parliament.

Dr Emerson —We're not arguing for regime change!

The SPEAKER —I thank the member for Rankin for that assurance. Let me reassure the member for Lilley that, while there may be further improvements appropriate, it is fair to say that the number of people warned proportionately on both sides of the House over the last 20 years has in fact moved only one way—that is, there has been a greater balance rather than a greater imbalance. That is characteristic—I say that not as a criticism—of the different roles on both sides of the House. I can reassure the member for Lilley that I came out of the last non-sitting week feeling much better than I was feeling when I went into the last non-sitting week. If the member for Lilley wishes, I will draw a mathematical table of the process over the last 20 years, but I am generally not about to change my approach. It is self-evident that there has never been as many government members removed from the House as there have been in the last—I am going to nominate a loose time—seven or eight years, thanks to the facility of standing order 304A.