Senator ABETZ (Tasmania—Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service and Minister for Employment) (14:05): Sometimes I think you have to be on crack to read the gossip columns and then take them seriously, like Senator Sterle does, to regurgitate them in this place! I do not intend to use my days and hours reading these gossip columns. They are simply of no interest to me. What that question shows, yet again, is that the Australian Labor Party and its senators—fond as I am of Senator Sterle—dedicate themselves not to policy and a new direction for our country but on reading gossip columns and then thinking they can construct clever questions around— The PRESIDENT: Pause the clock! Senator Moore—a point of order? Senator Moore: Yes, Mr President, on direct relevance. The minister has been talking around the question. The question was particularly about the double dissolution question. He has— Senator Abetz: Oh, come on! Senator Moore: Yes it was, Minister. The PRESIDENT: Order! No argument across the table. You are directing your comments to me, Senator Moore. The PRESIDENT: Mr President, the question itself was around the double dissolution election. The rest was argument. The PRESIDENT: Senator Sterle asked a question which I think, in all assessments, has an element where the minister has been answering directly to the question. He raised some direct quotes out of the media. The minister has been responding to those direct quotes out of the media. Senator ABETZ: Allow me to repeat: we, as a government, are determined to concentrate on the policy issues facing this country to reduce the cost of living for Australians and to create as many jobs as possible. Whilst we are doing that, the Labor Party reads gossip columns and asks questions about them.