BUDGET

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for the Environment and Water) (15:02): Senator Shoebridge has asked for an explanation about a relatively small number of questions on notice that have not been answered. This has been a point that has come up numerous times at Senate estimates in the Home Affairs portfolio. When I have been asked as the representing minister to explain outstanding questions on notice, I have pointed out the incredible explosion we have seen in the numbers of questions on notice asked in Senate estimates for the Home Affairs portfolio, particularly in this parliament.

This has been a combined effort of the Greens political party, along with the Liberal Party and other representatives in the Senate. To give you some perspective on that, the number of Senate estimates questions on notice, parliamentary questions on notice and orders for the production of documents all skyrocketed in the previous parliament, and this trend is continuing in the 48th Parliament.

Twelve thousand two hundred and ninety-four Senate estimates questions on notice were submitted for the October 2025 estimates round. That was the highest figure in a single round since the database of Senate estimates questions on notice was established. Despite this, many of the same questions were submitted again in December 2025, taking the total number of questions answered in October and December estimates to 24,374.

By February 2026, less than a year into the 48th Parliament, the total number of questions on notice asked in Senate estimates was already over 50 per cent of the total asked in the three years of the 47th Parliament. As I've pointed out in previous Senate estimates sessions, if senators were to be a little bit more judicious around the number of Senate estimates questions on notice that they ask, then it would be more possible for ministers and their departments to answer those questions.

Senator Hume has been a particular offender in asking, frankly, a ridiculous number of Senate estimates questions on notice. In the last parliament alone, Senator Hume asked nearly 35,000 Senate estimates questions on notice. That included more than 500 questions concerning paper use by departments, nearly 100 questions concerning working on the King's Birthday holiday and nearly 100 questions concerning who might be the longest serving member of any particular agency.

Over 24,000 questions on notice were submitted for the 2025-26 supplementary budget estimates round, and, of those 24,000, Senator Hume submitted 17,793 of those questions. That was over 72 per cent of the questions submitted for that round. This government, and the minister I represent in the Senate, will always do their very best, as will their departments, to respond to the questions on notice that they receive.

But, when we receive that sheer number, it will take time, and people are more likely to get faster answers if they are more selective and judicious about the sheer number of questions that they ask.