Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

How else do I indicate they are incompetent? If that is being nasty then, I am sorry, I am nasty. I do not intend it to be personal; I just want to indicate that I do not think they are competent or able to administer their portfolios. The way they act at question time, I suggest with respect, actually demonstrates that. The senator at the minister’s chair may wish to rise and defend them later and point out how good they are. But you only have to see the way they answer questions without notice to know that something needs to be done.

I am suggesting to Senator Fielding that he does need to have a closer look at this. I am not saying that he should necessarily support it but do not dismiss it out of hand because I think there is merit in it. We then might be able to return to the purpose of question time, which is to elicit information, to keep the government accountable and to try, through the style of the questions, to expose some of the various obvious inefficiencies and incompetencies of this very nervous and incompetent government.