Senator O'NEILL (New South Wales) (14:31): My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health, Senator McKenzie. I refer to reports that the member for Dickson, Peter Dutton, was running a joint ticket with the member for Flinders, Greg Hunt, for the leadership and the deputy leadership of the Liberal Party. Can the minister guarantee that the Minister for Health was not running a joint ticket with the member Dickson, Peter Dutton, in the vote against Prime Minister Turnbull? Senator Cormann: On a point of order: even with the greatest amount of generosity, I can't detect how this relates to the minister's portfolio responsibilities. Senator Wong: On the point of order, this is a question to the minister in her representing responsibilities and goes directly to the conduct of the minister she is representing, a member of the cabinet who is bound by cabinet solidarity. I would submit to you, Mr President, that these sorts of questions have been asked and answered. My recollection is that Senator Abetz asked similar questions of Senator Conroy when we were on that side of the chamber. It goes directly to the tenability of Mr Hunt as a cabinet minister. What could be more relevant to his role as a minister than his loyalty to the cabinet and to the Prime Minister, consistent with the Cabinet Handbook and with the principles of Westminster government. The PRESIDENT: Senator Wong, firstly, questions about the Cabinet Handbook should go to the Minister representing the Prime Minister in the first instance. Secondly, ministers can be questioned about public statements they have made outside that don't relate to their portfolio. Ministers representing other ministers in the other place can, of course, be questioned about matters of public administration within their representational portfolio. I will come back to the chamber in some detail on this. I will invite the minister to say if there is anything she wishes to add. I'm not going to rule the question out of order in this, because I'm going to allow the minister to add something if she wishes. What I will say is that, I think, without reference to materials, this is a stretch because it does not relate to the portfolio responsibilities of the minister, a public statement made by the minister or the minister she is representing. Senator McKenzie, if you wish to say something in response to the assertions in that question, you may, if not I will move on and provide Senator O'Neill with an opportunity to ask a supplementary question.