Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

This government has moved to change that and you should look at the Hansard and look at some of the questions that I have asked over the years before you interject along those lines. Here is a telling statistic: two of those unanswered questions were placed on the Notice Paper on the first sitting day and remained unanswered for 1,103 days. I think that really sums up the previous government’s record.

Senator Ronaldson, what we will do is take the matter seriously and work with you to provide responses. It is appropriate to delay the motion—as I did not provide leave to move it—to a point where if you do have issues such as you have raised you do them in the appropriate way. Usually, we can resolve these very quickly. I indicated in my email on Friday that we were working on providing a response. I spoke to you about how we do that. That is the usual course, rather than take up some 50 minutes in the chamber while we go through what I can only say is an entertaining debate but not a serious debate from the opposition side. It is a serious matter and that is why I am also taking up more time than I would otherwise do to ensure that those who might be not only participating in this debate but reading or listening to the debate can understand that this government does take this seriously.

Question agreed to.