Question Time

Australian Labor Party Advertising

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Leader of the Government in the upper house a question about ALP advertising.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Recently, the ALP aired an ad fronted by their federal Labor Leader, Bill Shorten. Senior Labor member, Anthony Albanese, claimed the ad should never have been produced or shown, describing it as 'a shocker of an ad'. His condemnation went further, saying, 'It's not the sort of ad that I want my party to be promoting.' Labor shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, also labelled the ad appalling. Mr Shorten even went on to say that he would speak to the ALP about the ad. My question to the minister is: does the minister share Mr Albanese's and Mr Bowen's criticisms of the ad?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:22): I thank the honourable member for his question. I haven't seen the ad.

The PRESIDENT: I do not think a political ad run by a party really has anything to do with the ministerial responsibilities of the minister, so I question whether that question is legitimate.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: I am just putting to you that, before you have too many supps, the purpose of question time is to scrutinise accountability for the ministerial responsibilities of a minister. To bring up an ad, which is a federal ad, has nothing to do with ministerial responsibilities.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Does that mean the government here can't really bring up things about the federal Liberal government because it has no responsibility? You can't have it both ways, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: I have actually spoken in the past about their contribution. I am not ruling your question out of order. I am just putting a position. He has already answered a question. Depending on how many supplementary questions you are going to ask, just bear in mind that it does not have anything to do with his ministerial responsibilities.