Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

It is. It is you, and of course you'll exploit and wedge this. I understand that, but you're doing it openly, brazenly, in the full light of day. I'd invite Australians not to forget that this government, from the moment it was elected until this moment, has reduced—at every juncture it can—scrutiny and transparency. It seeks to cut off the freedom of information rights of Australians, even as we speak.

I move my amendment because this will actually force the hand of the Prime Minister, and it will reveal the government's true agenda. My amendment says—and I say to every member here—that the Prime Minister may not cut off question time until eight opposition questions have been asked. That means that the non-government side will get its chance every day to have a minimum number of questions, stopping this slide that the Albanese government has started of the fewest questions asked per parliament of any parliament in our history. The manager of government business is right; he hasn't seen some things here, but we haven't seen a prime minister with fewer questions asked per question time either, and that is a problem for our democracy. That's why we move these amendments. That's why I believe all of the crossbench and the National Party and the Liberal Party and the opposition are all united in saying that we should have more scrutiny, more transparency and more opportunity for questions in question time in parliament.

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