Minister for the stuff no one else wants, Joy Burch, is demanding answers as to why no one asks her questions during Legislative Assembly sittings:
“Mr Doszpot has asked almost as many questions about Health than he has about all his own portfolios put together, and I urge Mr Seselja to let Mr Doszpot prepare his own questions, so that the key portfolios of Education and Disability – as well as the other important portfolios Mr Doszpot supposedly has carriage of – get the attention in the Assembly they deserve.”
The plea comes ahead of changes to the Question Time format that come into effect when the Assembly sits this week, in which portfolios the Liberals and Greens have identified as minor will be allocated an extra 20 minutes on two days each sitting week on a rotating portfolio roster. Despite Disability receiving just one question from the Opposition and Greens combined in 2011 it is not on the QT roster. Ms Burch will take questions on Arts this Tuesday under the roster system.
Ms Burch expressed disappointment that despite asking 225 questions combined (excluding supplementary questions) this year, the Opposition and Greens were yet to ask a question on Multicultural Affairs, Women, or Ageing, and have asked just one for Arts and Indigenous Affairs. The Greens have not asked a question on Disability all year.