Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

There were 19,000. That is quite a big number. Can you imagine how many of those we have answered? The answer, colleagues, is that we have answered 93 per cent of those questions. There were 19,000 questions taken on notice, and 93 per cent have been answered. We've also received, just for completeness, 2,573 parliamentary questions on notice in the Senate. Colleagues, can you imagine how many we've answered? We've answered 97.5 per cent of those questions. Do you know why we answer them? It's because we understand in a way that the people on the other side never have—and, I suspect, unfortunately, never will—the role that questions on notice play in transparency and in accountability. We will continue to provide the answers to any outstanding questions as expeditiously as possible. But it is hard to hear it from some of the senators opposite because the hypocrisy is just astounding.

The fact is—and it is entirely relevant to this debate—that their track record was appalling, and they set a very low bar indeed for this government to clear. Not only have we cleared it but we have cleared it with a very large gap. For the May 2023 budget estimates hearings, our government has now answered over 85 per cent of the questions. For the equivalent budget estimates in May 2021, can you imagine how many questions the Morrison government had answered? They answered just 67 per cent of questions by the due date. Many Morrison government ministers returned answers from the previous round of estimates while the next round was actually underway. When they were voted out, they had nearly a thousand unanswered questions on notice, some of which dated back to October 2019. They also failed to comply with 36 per cent of orders for the production of documents, and we don't know why they did that because no public interest immunity claim was made about those. So it's pretty hard to take them seriously on this, isn't it?

These aren't isolated examples of the approach taken by those opposite when they were in government. Who can forget former Prime Minister Morrison secretly swearing himself in to multiple ministries? I know you would all rather forget. It's pretty embarrassing, and it's difficult while Mr Morrison is here as an ever-present reminder of that set of events. We had a prime minister undermining our parliamentary system of government, undermining our democratic traditions of accountability and responsibility, and undermining integrity. Of course in the months since, he has refused to take any responsibility for it whatsoever. Who could forget the promise to establish in legislation a national anticorruption commission—a promise that the Morrison government never kept? They did nothing to improve the standard of transparency when they were in government. They refused to act.

Senator McGrath's contribution dwelled for a period on the special-purpose aircraft. The Morrison government failed to release any details on special-purpose aircraft flights taken in the last 16 months of their government. Can we guess who was the minister responsible at that time? It's the now Leader of the Opposition, Mr Dutton. He released absolutely no information about the use of special-purpose aircraft during his time as Minister for Defence.

Let's deal with this a little more seriously and a little more honestly, shall we, colleagues? The number of questions being asked has risen significantly. Indeed, 50 per cent more Senate questions on notice have been asked in this government's first year than were asked in the three years from 2017 to 2019. That's not necessarily a problem, and this government, as I've indicated, responds to the questions that are asked. But it's an increase from 11,700 in that period to 18,000 in the last year alone. I don't intend to comment on the quality of the questions being asked or the motivations of the senators asking them. But what is clear and observable is that the information that's being provided is not being used to improve the quality of the opposition's policymaking, because they have no policies. It isn't being used to improve the factual basis of their public arguments, because they continue to be even more divorced from reality in opposition than they were in government, and that is really saying something.

The truth is, colleagues, that our record demonstrates this government's commitment to transparency and integrity across the parliament. The reality is that parliamentary questions on notice have increased from an average of fewer than 1,000 per year from 2016 to 2020 to 2,200 in the first year of our government. Senate estimates questions on notice have increased from 11,700 from 2017 to 2019 to more than 18,000 in the first year of the Albanese government. We'll continue to work our way methodically through those questions, but we will not take lectures from those opposite about transparency.