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House of Representatives                                Ch 14                                                 p 511

Interjections

When a Member is speaking, no Member may converse aloud or make any noise or disturbance to interrupt the Member. ¹ Should Members wish to refute statements made in debate they have the opportunity to do so when they themselves address the House on the question or, in certain circumstances, by informing the Chair that they have been misrepresented ( see p. 483).

In order to facilitate debate the Chair may regard it as wise not to take note of interjections. ² Deputy Speaker Chanter commented in 1920:

I call attention to a rule which is one of the most stringent that we have for the guidance of business [now S.O. 66]. I may say that an ordinary interjection here and there is not usually taken notice of by the Chair, but a constant stream of interjections is decidedly disorderly. ³

The Chair, although recognising all interjections as disorderly, has also been of the opinion that it should not interfere as long as they were short and did not interrupt the thread of the speech being delivered. ⁴ The fact that an interjection has been directly invited by the remarks of the Member speaking in no way justifies the interruption of a speech, ⁵ and the Chair has suggested that Members refrain from adopting an interrogatory method of speaking which provokes interjections. ⁶ It is not uncommon for the Chair, when ordering interjectors to desist, to urge the Member speaking to address his or her remarks through the Chair and not to invite or respond to interjections. ⁷ Interjections which are not replied to by the Member with the call or which do not lead to any action or warning by the Chair are not recorded in Hansard.

It may be accepted that, as the House is a place of thrust and parry, the Chair need not necessarily intervene in the ordinary course of debate when an interjection is made. Intervention would be necessary if interjections were, in the opinion of the Chair, too frequent or such as to interrupt the flow of a Member’s speech or were obviously upsetting the Member who had the call. The Chair has a duty to rebuke the person who interjects rather than chastise the Member speaking for replying to an interjection.

S.O. 65(b).

H.R. Deb. (14.8.03) 3664; H.R. Deb. (16.6.15) 4014; H.R. Deb. (18.6.15) 4229-30.

H.R. Deb. (14.7.20) 2707.

H.R. Deb. (12.9.01) 4810.

H.R. Deb. (28.9.05) 2986; H.R. Deb. (1.5.96) 107.

H.R. Deb. (1.5.14) 539.

E.g. H.R. Deb. (5.5.83) 250; H.R. Deb. (10.11.83) 2630-1; H.R. Deb. (1.5.96) 107; H.R. Deb. (8.12.98) 1589.