I gave you notice I wished to raise a matter I thought affected the privileges of the House and affected me as a Deputy. I appreciate that the time was extremely short. I received, since you went into the Chair, a notification that you did not consider that you should give me such permission. I want to put this to you, without going into the matter I told you I wished to raise, that when a Minister announces that he is going to show a document to anybody outside the House and when he is asked to put the document on the Table of the House, it is his duty to put it on the Table of the House and that it would also be the courteous thing to do. If there is a public averment that a document on record in a Government Department is to be shown to anybody, then, if one of the persons concerned—and I was the person concerned here—asks that the document be put on the Table of the House, it should be done. I suggest I should be allowed to make that point in relation to the matter that arose in this House this morning.
I accept without question that because of the time factor in relation to the typescript being available, it was not possible for you to give as full consideration to it as you otherwise might, but the typescript shows clearly that the Minister for Agriculture stated: "I shall produce it to any person outside", and I then say: "Put it on the Table of the House" and the Minister for Agriculture says: "No, I shall not". I want to suggest that that is in breach of the privilege of the House and that as the document is on recored in a Government Department it should either be put on the Table of the House—and that is what I want——
