Deputy Premier Roger Cook and Attorney-General John Quigley have vented their frustration in parliament at the onslaught of questions asked by Dawesville MP Zak Kirkup since he was sworn in this year.
Mr Quigley hit out at Mr Kirkup in parliament, accusing him of wasting the time of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) by asking questions about office expenditure, including stationery.
Government sources said Mr Kirkup had asked more than a thousand questions since parliament resumed in May after the March state election.
“Might I just inform the house that on 20 June he sent a question on notice requiring the CCC, amongst other things, to count how many pens and pencils it has, and to provide a breakdown of the type of expenditure, the type of pencil and the type of pens,” Mr Quigley said in parliament.
“He wants the DPP to take prosecutors off the very important task of prosecuting the Claremont serial killer and prosecuting methamphetamine dealers to say how many pens and pencils she has in her office, and how many pens and pencils by name and type does each prosecutor have.”
Mr Cook accused Mr Kirkup of being “distracted by tricky games with questions on notice” and of failing to ask questions about his electorate.
But Mr Kirkup slammed the accusations and said the notion he hadn’t asked about his district was “absolutely wrong”.
“There are hundreds of questions I’ve posed in relation to issues in the Peel region, Labor party commitments to the Peel region, police response times, for example, in Mandurah, and wait lists at the Peel Health Campus,” he said.
“This is typical of a government that is trying to hide and which lacks integrity and accountability.
“Questions are an opportunity for members of parliament to represent their community and also represent all of West Australia and to try to understand what the government has been getting up to.”
Mr Kirkup said there had been an unusual level of focus on his questioning of the government.
“I’ve been attacked already by the Attorney-General and by other ministers of the crown, including the Deputy Premier, for asking questions,” he said.
“They’re balking at this, they’re concerned about this because I expect they have something to hide because if they didn’t have anything to hide, if this was just regular answers to regular questions, which is exactly what these are, then they would be fine.
“But in all reality we’ve seen a very different response from a government I think that hasn’t taken on board the message from the Western Australian people that they want a government that is accountable and transparent.”
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