Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly—Deputy President, through you—in response to Senator Ayres, I ask the new President to consider in relation to this standing order what has become an emerging practice of senators not just asking in relation to questions that they have asked that may be unanswered but also seeking to do so in relation to other senators. I am not sure that that is truly in keeping with the letter of the standing order, and I would encourage the President to take a look at that and to reflect upon it following advice.

In relation to responses to questions, this government in this parliament has been more responsive to more questions than at any time in recent memory. Through the course of this parliament we have received some 4,313 parliamentary questions on notice. That is almost as many questions on notice through the parliament, through this chamber, in the life of this parliament as in the two previous parliaments put together. When it comes to Senate estimates questions on notice, we have responded since the 2019 election to 31,486 questions on notice.

So I make the point, as I said, that, in terms of parliamentary questions on notice, we have been more responsive to more questions than in either of the last couple of parliaments, and we are at the point where this parliament and this government have done more in responding to questions than the previous parliaments combined. In total, across parliamentary questions on notice and Senate estimates questions on notice, we indeed are now tracking close to 36,000 questions that have been asked of and answered by the government during this time.

The government well and truly lives up to the expectations of accountability. In fact, most people would be incredibly surprised to learn of that sheer volume of questions asked, answered, tabled and responded to in this place. That does not include the myriad other committees, including, for example, the COVID select committee that was established, which have posed many additional questions, nor does it count the many, many hours spent in estimates and committee hearings or in this place answering questions that were not taken on notice.

So, yes, I know there are a handful, in relative terms, compared to the tens of thousands of questions that have been answered, that remain outstanding. The government work through these things as best we can with the record volumes of questions that we have continued to face. We have not just handled a record number of questions but provided a record number of answers. We will continue to work through the record numbers of answers as much as we possibly can.