Labor wants Napthine government to answer questions on notice

Date
    December 31, 2013


The Napthine government has been accused of secrecy with nearly 1000 questions asked in Parliament still unanswered.      

The questions on notice are from Labor to the government and are written. The Opposition says 993 questions, 521 in the lower house and 472 in the upper house, still have not been answered.

Parliament resumes on February 4, there are 46 questions that still have not been answered from May 11, 2011 - 1000 days by the time Parliament resumes.

The questions range from specific electorate matters to broad portfolio issues as well as staffing levels in ministers' offices.


Some of the unanswered questions focus on job losses at Telstra in Ballarat, the number of women on government agency and department boards, drug testing at Barwon prison and meetings attended by Planning Minister Matthew Guy.

There has also been a series of questions about the number of children receiving, waiting for and unsuccessfully applying for early childhood intervention services.

Deputy Opposition Leader James Merlino said the amount of unanswered questions made a mockery out of Premier Denis Napthine's claims that his government was open and accountable.      

''These questions aren't asked for the fun of it. They are asked to seek information on important local issues,'' Mr Merlino said.

''Labor expects Denis Napthine to have all responses ready to be tabled on the first sitting day in February next year.''

A response was sought from the state government.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/labor-wants-napthine-government-to-answer-questions-on-notice-20131230-3035x.html#ixzz2ozecRSNn

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THE South Australian opposition says it will answer all parliamentary questions within 90 days if it wins the state election in March. 
 
The Liberals have criticised the state government for failing to answer more than half the questions put to it by the opposition, independents and minor parties since it was elected in 2002.

It said at the end of 2013, 3523 questions remained unanswered.

"The state Liberals believe in increasing transparency and accountability to help restore faith in government," Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said on Monday.

"That's why a Liberal government will answer all parliamentary questions within 90 days."

Acting Premier John Rau said there was some merit to putting a time limit on answers to genuine questions.

But he said in many cases the questions that remained unanswered involved MPs seeking information readily available just by checking the internet or reading publicly available government reports and documents.

"The number of lazy inquiries has gone up astronomically," Mr Rau said.

"You can't have a whole army of public servants doing nothing else but finding answers to questions that these people could find answers to themselves."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/sa-libs-pledge-to-answer-all...