Howard Charges $84 To Tell Senate To Clear Off
Media Release
A recent Senate Estimates question about the cost of consultancy contracts at the Office of Workplace Services received a terse 'Nil response' from the agency.
Date: 09 August 2007
A recent Senate Estimates question about the cost of consultancy contracts at the Office of Workplace Services received a terse 'Nil response' from the agency.
However, it did claim that it had taken 4.6 hours and cost $84 to tell the Senate absolutely nothing.
The response is part of a disturbing trend of Howard Government Ministers refusing to answer legitimate Senate questions and proudly costing the alleged time it takes to respond.
The Howard Government has become so arrogant it thinks that parliamentary scrutiny is a waste of time and money.
New figures compiled within the Department of the Senate reveal a blow out in the number of unanswered Senate Estimates questions.
Each May, at Budget Estimates hearings, Senators place questions on notice and committees set a deadline for Government responses.
This year, the proportion of unanswered questions has ballooned to a whopping 77 per cent.
This comes on top of John Howard's takeover of the Senate committee system and slashing the number of Opposition questions in Senate Question Time.
Senator Evans will participate in a Getup! forum on the Senate in Canberra tonight.
