Thursday, 7 April 2022

Written responses

Dr CUMMING (Western Metropolitan) (11:19): Constituency questions and adjournments allow us to raise matters with a minister, whether they be a complaint, a request or just to have a matter clarified. These matters are usually raised by our constituents, and yesterday, much to my surprise, I received a response from the Premier to one of my adjournments, an adjournment that I raised on 2 February 2021. Standing orders state that a question must be answered within 14 days and an adjournment within 30 days. I should not really be surprised that it took this long for the Premier to give me a response. After all, the West Gate Tunnel cannot be delivered on time, $1.3 billion extra; 4000 ICU beds were not delivered; and they cannot get 000 calls fixed. But as of last night there were 129 constituency questions and 127 adjournment matters by members of this house unanswered, some dating back more than 12 months. It is very disappointing to see the total contempt that ministers have for the concerns of Victorians when they do not even answer the questions in this Parliament—but this does not surprise me when they are following the example of the Premier, who takes 14 months to respond to my adjournment for my constituents.