Labor’s question time “reform” turns to farce
State Parliament resumes today with another promise broken by Daniel Andrews.
Before the election Mr Andrews promised that he would reform question time so there would be a longer question time with more questions and less grandstanding.
Instead, he has done exactly the opposite. Under new rules which Labor has forced through, the number of separate questions that can be asked in the lower house each question time has been cut from ten to just five, and after every question, a government minister is entitled to make a statement about almost anything they like!
Instead of having an hour for question time each sitting day, as Labor promised, there will be a total of only 30 minutes allowed each day for asking and answering questions, interrupted after each question by two minutes of ministerial grandstanding.
Under these changes, the Victorian Legislative Assembly will be unique amongst the Westminster parliaments in having abolished Question Time and replaced it with “Question and Statement Time”.
Question time is a key part of government accountability to Parliament and the community. Far from reforming question time as Mr Andrews promised, he has broken his promise and replaced question time with a farce.
For my speech in Parliament on what Labor promised and what they have done, see http://hansard.parliament.vic.gov.au/…/a84f0a1c-0fb4…/3/doc/