Senator COLBECK (Tasmania—Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians and Minister for Youth and Sport) (14:45): I have spoken to the Prime Minister and senior cabinet colleagues on a daily basis, with— The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Gallagher on a point of order? Senator Gallagher: Yes, Mr President, on direct relevance. It was a direct question about when he first briefed the cabinet, not when he had a chat with the Prime Minister. That's not the question I asked. The PRESIDENT: Senator Cormann? Senator Cormann: Senator Colbeck is directly relevant to the question asked. He is explaining that he has daily conversations with the leader of the cabinet and, indeed, with all of the ministers who are part of the key cabinet subcommittee, the Expenditure Review Committee, and others as appropriate. Of course, in a moment of crisis that is what Australians would expect their Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians to do. The minister is being directly relevant to the question. The PRESIDENT: I'll take Senator Wong on a point of order and then I'll rule. Senator Wong: Thank you, Mr President. The point of order is direct relevance. The minister has been asked, and has answered a question about the cabinet briefing. He is now seeking to avoid answering another question about cabinet briefing in relation to an unprecedented crisis in aged care which has caused the deaths of many Australians. We would ask the minister to be directly relevant to the question, which was: when did he first brief the cabinet about this unprecedented crisis? The PRESIDENT: Firstly, I will say that the minister has been speaking for eight seconds so it is difficult to make a strict judgement on direct relevance at that point in a one-minute answer. Secondly, I'm not willing to rule that a minister who is strictly talking about his conversations or discussions with the Prime Minister is not directly relevant to a question regarding whether he briefed the cabinet, given that the Prime Minister is the head of cabinet. However, the answer to that must be narrow in its scope. It is not up to me to instruct a minister how to answer a question. It is up to others to judge or debate after question time. Senator Colbeck to continue. Senator COLBECK: As I have said: I am not going to allow the Labor Party to try to attempt any suggestion that this government has not put its full focus on the management of this entire COVID-19 outbreak. I have been present at the subcommittee of cabinet meetings since March to discuss it on each of the occasions that it has convened. Since July, that would be daily or, sometimes, twice-daily to manage the circumstances in Victoria. The outbreak in Victoria has had the full attention of me, my fellow ministers who are involved in that subcommittee of cabinet and the Prime Minister on a daily basis since the outbreak— (Time expired) The PRESIDENT: Senator Gallagher, a final supplementary question?