Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

Former minister Birmingham would know something about unanswered questions on notice. After all, he was the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, as recently as just a few months ago. Can I tell senators about the former Prime Minister's track record on questions on notice. When the election was called, the former Prime Minister had a total of 128 unanswered parliamentary questions on notice, and it wasn't just parliamentary questions on notice that were left unanswered. It wasn't just parliamentary questions on notice that were left unanswered. The Prime Minister's own department had a total of 391 unanswered questions on notice from Senate estimates—391!

I'm advised that the Prime Minister will answer these questions in due course, but we're not going to be lectured by the opposition after the government routinely failed to answer questions on notice in a timely fashion.