Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Minister for Emergency Management) (14:10): I anticipated I might get a question about this, because it came up yesterday. Senator McKenzie: Because you didn't answer it last time. Senator WATT: Would you like the answer? The PRESIDENT: Thank you. Interjections across the chamber are disorderly. Please continue answering the question, Minister Watt. Senator WATT: My intention, as is normal practice, is to answer the questions that I took on notice yesterday at the end of question time today, which is what many ministers on your side of the chamber have done. Senator McGrath interjecting— Senator WATT: The answer is that my announcement was that our new funding, funding that your government, when you were in power, did not commit and did not implement, will deliver 18 new biosecurity officers. They are currently being recruited, and, in the meantime, we have employed 65 contractors and 10 other officers. Again, I make the point that every action we have taken—sanitation foot mats, biosecurity response zones, extra biosecurity officers—were never taken by your government when this outbreak got to Indonesia. All you did was send tweets. The PRESIDEN T: Minister Watt, resume your seat. Senator McGrath, I have asked politely on a number of occasions that you not interject. Please desist with the interjections. They are disorderly. Thank you, Minister. Senator WATT: It's no wonder, with this calibre of debate, that industry is backing the government. (Time expired) Senator McGrath interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Senator McGrath, I directed you just then not to interject, and the minute the minister got up you interjected again. Senator McGrath interjecting— The PRESIDENT: It's not a debate. Senator McGrath, it is not a debate with me. It's a direct request. I'm asking you to stop being disorderly. Senator Wong: If I may, President, in relation to your previous point of order, I just wanted to refer you to Odgers'—and I do this also so that the opposition can be aware of the position of the government. In relation to the use of supplementary questions, President McClelland made a statement in which he said: … supplementary questions are appropriate only for the purposes of elucidating information arising from the original question and answer. They are not appropriate for the purpose of introducing additional or new material or proposing a new question, even though such a question might be related to the subject matter of the original question. Whilst I do note that there have been some changes in standing orders since that time, I would ask you, perhaps subsequent to question time, to consider that. Senator Birmingham: Whilst undertaking that review, I would encourage you to look back at past consideration of questions that were asked. I think you will find that, in terms of the relationship between the question that is asked and the supplementary questions, oftentimes that relationship relates very specifically to the subject matter and the flow of the small issues related to those subjects. In this case, the discussion of foot mats and the discussion of vaccines being supplied to Indonesia clearly all relate to the foot-and-mouth outbreak and are following the very common practice since the process of having a primary question and two supplementary questions was introduced into the Senate. The PRESIDENT: I thank both leaders for those comments. As I said, I'll review the Hansard and come back to the Senate if necessary. Senator McKim: On a point of order, I'll just very briefly observe, President, that we are chewing up a lot of time at the moment. Question time yesterday had a very small number of questions asked and time was consumed by excessive points of order. I just simply ask senators, including Senator Wong and Senator Birmingham, to consider the passage of time while they are making their points of order. The PRESIDENT: Senator McKim, I can reassure you that, during this current debate and points of order, the clock has been stopped.