Greens want please-explain from Labor ministers who ignore reports

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Labor ministers who miss or ignore deadlines for parliamentary reports would be forced to explain why they haven’t done their jobs under a Greens proposal to ensure the hard work of the community and MPs isn’t left languishing.

Meanwhile, a former state Labor MP has criticised the government for not responding to a homelessness report that was tabled two years ago, given ministers are supposed to respond to reports within six months.

Greens MP for Brunswick, Dr Tim Read, also chairs parliament’s Integrity and Oversight Committee. Credit: Eddie Jim

Greens MP for Brunswick Tim Read, who extracted a concession from the Andrews government in March to chair parliament’s Integrity and Oversight Committee, now wants Labor to change the rules governing upper and lower house inquiries.

Under the plan, a parliamentary debate would automatically trigger when the state government does not meet the six-month deadline for responding to recommendations.

The development comes after this masthead revealed nine committees that handed down recommendations during the last term of parliament – ranging from ecosystem decline to cannabis reform – were yet to receive a response.

“When Labor refers problems to parliamentary inquiries, we have to start asking if they’re serious, or just hoping the problem will go away,” Read said.

“Responding to inquiry reports demonstrates accountability and willingness to listen to alternative views, and the Andrews Labor government should do more of both.”

The plan has the partial backing of the Coalition. While not supporting a full-blown parliamentary debate, shadow special minister of state David Davis said it was appropriate for there to be a mechanism ensuring ministers explained the government’s lack of a response on the floor of parliament.

“A sensible and effective solution would be to amend the standing orders to ensure that, six months after a report is tabled, the responsible minister is forced to explicitly and verbally explain why a particular report has been ignored,” he said.

“Such disregard for transparency and accountability is symptomatic of a tired, corrupt and incompetent government that is out of touch and out of ideas.”

The Andrews government was contacted for comment.

A former state Labor MP who worked on parliamentary inquiries, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they are still a card-carrying party member, said of the Andrews government: “I don’t know why they haven’t responded [to the homelessness inquiry] yet. This is a very big problem and it’s become more and more urgent with the rental crisis.”

But a current state Labor MP, also with committee experience, said it was disingenuous for political opponents to suggest inquiries were being ignored.

“If there was an easy answer to homelessness, someone would have found it by now,” the MP said. “Some of these [reports] are really complex. I know that’s cold comfort. But we are considering them.”

Centre for Public Integrity director Catherine Williams said a procedural overhaul was a good idea.

“Ideally, governments would respond promptly to the invaluable work of parliamentary committees – both as a matter of good practice, and in recognition of the fact that members of the community and interested stakeholder groups often dedicate substantial resources to the preparation of submissions,” she said.

“Where a government fails to respond within the required time, there should be a mechanism available to require it to explain itself to the parliament.”

Any reform would have strong support from the crossbench, given minor party MPs sometimes use question time to follow up on official documents at the expense of raising issues on behalf of constituents.

“The big one for us is the inquiry into ecosystem decline in Victoria,” said Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell. “It was one of the biggest parliamentary inquiries we’ve ever had, and one of the largest ever final reports.”

When asked about the delays on Thursday, Government Services Minister Danny Pearson cited last year’s election and the number of Labor ministers who retired at the November poll.

“The responsible minister needs to have the opportunity to consider any of those reports and findings and to respond appropriately in due course,” he said.

The deputy clerk of the Legislative Council, Anne Sargent, said a please-explain wasn’t issued to the government when it did not respond to the homelessness inquiry, or other inquiries, after six months.

“Parliamentary staff are not involved with following up overdue responses to committee reports,” she said. “Their role is to facilitate the tabling and publishing of responses when they are received.”

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