QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (14:28): I take the interjection from those opposite, which was about bubbles. This is extraordinary. At a time when there's a war in the Middle East, when there are significant economic impacts— The SPEAKER: The Prime Minister will pause.

Honourable members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order! The manager is entitled to raise his point of order, and he shall do so now. Mr Tehan: It goes to relevance.

The question could not be simpler. It's the second in this area, and the Prime Minister should come— The SPEAKER: Resume your seat. The Leader of the House.

Mr Burke: Just on the point of order, I refer to page 568 of Practice where it says, 'It is relevant to contrast the action of the government with another point of view.' It's exactly what the Prime Minister is doing. The SPEAKER: The Prime Minister, I think, had said about 21 words. The manager further to the point of order?

We're just trying to deal with this. Mr Tehan: That's not what the Prime Minister was doing in his answer. The SPEAKER: I don't know what the Prime Minister was saying, because he was about 20 words into an answer.

We won't be able to take any more points of order on relevance. We've already taken that point. The manager raised the point of order.

I'm going to listen to the Prime Minister, and I will ensure that he is directly— Mr Taylor interjecting— The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition, we're trying to deal with the point of order. If you could assist the House, that would be great. I appreciate that.

The Prime Minister needs his answer to be directly relevant to the question. Once again, I'm not able to deliver a yes/no answer for the manager on this occasion. I know you're keen on that, but I'm keen to make sure the Prime Minister is directly relevant.

He shall continue. Mr ALBANESE: I was responding, of course, to an interjection from those opposite. Let me make three points.

I made two before, so I'll make three and see if they get it. One is that I am satisfied with the current number of seats in the House of Representatives. That's 150, with 12 senators from each state.

That's point 1. Point 2 is that I'm also very satisfied with the composition of the current parliament! A government member interjecting— Mr ALBANESE: There are some over there as well; it's true.

And I like some of those over there too, to be fair! Point 3 is that I have been very privileged to have the best campaign director I've ever seen in Paul Erickson. If I were to say to Paul Erickson, 'We've got 94 seats, but how about we throw it all up in the air and see how it lands?' I reckon Paul Erickson would have a pretty clear response.