Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the explanation.

I think the fact that there are 55 questions, as the minister says, still outstanding is quite scandalous. It is also scandalous that it took so long to answer so many questions from estimates going back a very long time. I do not think that to say the preparation of the current budget is sufficient explanation for this delay is an acceptable explanation. What this delay amounts to in effect is a contempt of the Senate and its processes. Estimates, Mr Deputy President, as you well know, are a vital part of the Senate's role as a house of public accountability. That is what the Senate estimates are there for: for the senators on behalf of the Australian people to make the government accountable for its expenditure. It is totally unacceptable that the Gillard government should treat the Senate, senators and through them the people of Australia, with such disrespect by declining to answer questions on notice for so long.

From my experience, which Senator Wong referred to, of questions not being answered, the usual real reason is that the bureaucracy has provided the answers to the minister and the answers sit in the minister's office because ministers do not want to reveal or make public the information in them in case it causes them some political embarrassment. This is just a scandal. The total number of questions which have been delayed over the last year and a half for the Treasury portfolio and the Senate Standing Committee on Economics is some 336. That is just an enormous number of questions for which responses have been delayed. That is, as I have said, quite a scandal and the government should be ashamed of itself. I hope that this will not happen again following the current process of estimates and that instead we will have questions answered promptly for the benefit of the people of Australia.