Wednesday, 21 September 2022

Ministerial conduct

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (20:35): (2146) My adjournment matter is directed to the Premier, and he was here before—I was rather excited; I thought he might have answered it. My adjournment matter concerns a number of adjournment matters and constituency questions I have asked in 2022 that are overdue for response and remain unanswered by ministers, and the action that I seek from the Premier is for him to ensure these responses are provided as a matter of priority, as is required under the standing orders of the Legislative Council.

The Victorian Parliament is the people’s parliament and a place where members can raise issues on behalf of their constituents. We are the voice of our respective communities as we raise prominent issues with the relevant minister with a view to seeking a resolution that satisfies our constituents. One convention available to seek a resolution on an issue is to ask a question or seek an action of a minister through a constituency question or an adjournment matter. The standing orders of the Parliament require a minister to respond to a constituency question within 14 days of it being asked and allow them 30 days to respond to an adjournment matter. It is unfortunate that many ministers regularly ignore this obligation and have failed to provide a timely response to matters I have raised in 2022.

On constituency questions, I have nine outstanding constituency questions, of which eight are overdue. The two oldest I asked of ministers this year were to the Minister for Emergency Services, on 24 February, seeking funding to build new fire stations in Yarrawonga and Corowa, and to the Attorney-General, on 8 March, regarding one of my constituents. Inexplicably, no response has been forthcoming from Ms Symes, who holds both ministerial positions. There are a further six constituency questions I have asked this year that remain unanswered and are overdue for response—these are questions to the Minister for Health, asked on 10 May and 2 August; to the Minister for Education, on 24 May; another to the emergency services minister, on 21 June; to the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers, on 17 August; and to the Minister for Roads and Road Safety, on 30 August.

I also have a number of adjournment matters that are overdue. There are seven adjournment matters that have not been answered, four of which are overdue. They are matters that I directed to the former Minister for Health, who is a serial offender and has ignored all issues raised by members on this side of the house, with him failing to respond to matters from me raised on 24 and 25 May and 21 June. I also have one other matter that remains unanswered for the Minister for Housing, asked on 4 August. I would certainly not be the only member with questions that have not been answered, and I call on the Premier to bring his ministers into line and have them do their jobs.