Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I seek to make a personal explanation.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do you claim to have been misrepresented?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have been grievously misrepresented.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You may proceed.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday after question time the Minister for Government Services made several deliberately misleading statements about me in connection to concerns I have raised about answers to questions on notice being overdue. I can inform the House of the following. During the November-December round of Senate estimates last year the minister failed to respond to over 160 questions on notice by the deadline set down by the committee and during the February round of Senate estimates he failed to respond to over 340 questions on notice by the deadline set down by the committee. When asked by opposition senators if in fact these questions were overdue, the chief executive officer of Services Australia answered that all of them were overdue.

The Minister for Government Services concluded his tirade yesterday by declaring that I should stop 'wasting our time' by asking questions of him. This kind of arrogant contempt for entirely legitimate processes of the parliamentary scrutiny of executive government should trouble any Australians concerned about the operation of our democracy.

For the benefit of the minister, I advise him that the next round of answers to questions on notice for Services Australia are due on Friday 14 July 2023. I trust he will focus his attention on answering these questions rather than preparing fictitious and mendacious personal explanations.