Parliamentary Procedure

POINT OF ORDER RULING

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (17:23): Yesterday, in discussions regarding the shop trading hours, I was asked to provide an opinion on a matter that was raised. I have had the opportunity to look at the Hansard. The question put before me was whether the Premier should have tabled a document. I sought clarification from the Premier as to whether he was quoting from the document and he said no. I have looked at the Hansard, which I will quote:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: These are appended to cabinet documents. They are not ones that we traditionally release to the—

Ms CHAPMAN: You said you had done it and you haven't done it.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I am actually looking at it.

An honourable member: That doesn't make sense.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It does. When you look at it in context, the actual document was not referred to and was not quoted, but it was on his desk and all he was doing was verifying the existence of the document. Therefore, since the requirement to table a document is to quote from the document, the Premier has not done that and my ruling that it was not required to be tabled was correct, and I confirm that now.