PM avoids grilling about Joyce/Rinehart

The opposition is up in arms after being denied the opportunity in parliament to quiz Prime Minister Tony Abbott about Barnaby Joyce's intervention in a legal dispute between mining magnate Gina Rinehart and her children.

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop ruled a question from Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon out of order on Monday which Labor argued was unfair because he had not finished asking the question.

Manager of opposition business Tony Burke said the ruling "made a joke of the parliament" as he moved an unsuccessful dissent motion.