Dr CHALMERS (Rankin—Treasurer) (14:47): Saturday was a really important day. Saturday was the sixth-month anniversary of the last time the member for Hume asked me a question. Now that he has asked a question, we all know why. I say to the tactics committee on that side, it's probably not the worst call to deny him a question for more than six months. That's because the Prime Minister and I, in press conferences, have dealt with this question already. We know what this is all about. The position that they have taken is so incoherent, unintelligible and incomprehensible that they can't ask about the tax cuts which are before the parliament as of noon today. The SPEAKER: The Treasurer will pause. The Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order. Mr Fletcher: We're asking for a straight answer to a very clear question: Will he rule out changes to the tax treatment of negative gearing? He needs to give a clear and simple answer, a straight point on relevance or he should sit down. The SPEAKER: I think we'll deal with this matter now. The Treasurer will just resume his seat. I can appreciate when questions are asked that people would like a yes/no answer. As we begin this week and this parliamentary session, I can't make a minister answer a question 'yes' or 'no'. I want to make that clear to everyone. I can make sure they are directly relevant under the standing orders. I'll remind all members, if you wish to change the standing orders, that is up to the House to decide that. But, as they stand now—you may not like the answer; you may not agree with the answer—I simply can't ask a minister or a prime minister to answer a question 'yes' or 'no', as you would like. The Treasurer touched on his answer, in terms of his previous statement, so he is being relevant and he has the call. Dr CHALMERS: It beggars belief that the guy who hasn't asked me a question in more than six months is chirping at me about relevance. What would the member for Hume know about relevance? I say this once again, for those opposite: I've dealt with this question publicly in the recent past, and the point that I make, once again, is that it's almost three o'clock on the day that we introduced legislation to give a bigger tax cut to more workers, to help with the cost of living, and they still haven't asked us a question, at ten to three, about the legislation that I introduced at noon today. We all know what's going on here. They want to ask us a question about all of the things that we haven't said we're doing, because they can't defend their position on the thing that we have said we're doing.