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Title

Ch15 Questions / RULES GOVERNING QUESTIONS / Form and content of questions / Questions seeking opinions

Database

House Practice

Date

01-05-2005

Source

House of Reps

Parl No.

41

Chapter

Questions

Chapter No.

Chapter 15

Page

543

Section No.

 

System Id

procedural/practcer/chapter15.29.doc


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Ch15 Questions / RULES GOVERNING QUESTIONS / Form and content of questions / Questions seeking opinions



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House of Representatives                                Ch 15                                                 p 543

 

Questions / RULES GOVERNING QUESTIONS / Form and content of questions

 

Questions seeking opinions

Questions may not ask Ministers for an expression of opinion, including a legal opinion, 1 for comment, 2 or for justification of statements made by them. 3

Legal opinions, such as the interpretation of a statute, or of an international document, or of a Minister’s own powers, should not be sought in questions. Ministers may be asked, however, by what statutory authority they have acted in a particular instance, and the Prime Minister may be asked to define a Minister’s responsibilities. Speaker Morrison of the House of Commons explained the basis for not permitting questions seeking an expression of opinion on a question of law:

A Question asking a Minister to interpret the domestic law offends against the rule of Ministerial responsibility, since such interpretation is not the responsibility of a Minister . . . But it also offends against the rule that a Question may not ask for a Minister’s opinion. The interpretation of written words is a matter of opinion. It is for the latter reason, I think, that the rule has been applied to the interpretation of an international document. 4

Questions asking about the extent to which federal legislation would prevail over State legislation or administra tive action have been permitted. 5 In addition it has been ruled that in response to a question dealing with the law a Minister may provide any facts, as opposed to legal opinions, the Minister may wish to give. 6 Questions asking whether legislation existed on a specified subject, 7 whether an agency was entitled to take a particular action, 8 whether certain actions were in breach of regulations, 9 whether offences against Commonwealth laws may have been committed, 10 and what the consequences of certain actions had been, 11 have been permitted.

In 1951, a question seeking a legal opinion from the Prime Minister having been disallowed, a Member asked the Prime Minister if he would table legal opinions he had received on the matter specified. The Prime Minister declined, stating that it was not his practice to table opinions received from the Crown’s legal advisers. 12 The Attorney-General has also answered a question in writing (which did not explicitly seek a legal opinion), to the effect that that he did not consider it appropriate to provide the substance of a legal opinion in response to a question in writing. 13



S.O. 98(d).



H.R. Deb. (25.8.77) 628; H.R. Deb. (19.5.88) 2674.



H.R. Deb. (20.11.57) 2322.



H.C. Deb. 543 (5.7.55) 961-2.



H.R. Deb. (6.10.76) 1542.



H.R. Deb. (4.4.79) 1474.



H.R. Deb. (5.5.76) 1926.



H.R. Deb. (8.6.2000) 17442.



H.R. Deb. (7.3.2000) 14020.



H.R.Deb. (8.10.2003) 20841-2.



H.R. Deb. (15.2.2000) 13424.



H.R. Deb. (6.11.51) 1542. It has been stated that questions seeking information about advice given to the Crown by law officers are in fact out of order, Lord Campion, An introduction to the procedure of the House of Commons , 3rd edn, Macmillan, London, 1958, p. 151.



H.R. Deb. (19.9.96) 4853.