Government accused of wanting ‘secret state’ after opting not to continue with 30-day time limit on questions taken on notice

The Premier has been accused of wanting to “lead a secret state like a dark-age dictator” after a significant change to rules around questions taken on notice.

Premier Peter Malinauskas has been accused of wanting to “lead a secret state like a dark-age dictator” after the government ended rules that ensured prompt answers to parliamentary questions taken on notice.

The previous government implemented a “sessional order” 30-day limit to provide answers to questions, Opposition legal affairs spokesman Josh Teague said.

On Tuesday night the limit was lifted, which Mr Teague said could mean parliamentary questions may go unanswered for years.

“Peter Malinauskas wants to keep South Australians in the dark and has launched a shameless attack on transparency to ensure Labor has no accountability in government,” Mr Teague said.

“The move signals Peter Malinauskas has something to hide or doesn’t intend to deliver on his promises to South Australians.

Premier Peter Malinauskas has been accused of wanting to “lead a secret state like a dark-age dictator”. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Kelly Barnes

“Peter Malinauskas must explain why he wants to lead a secret state like a dark-age dictator.”

However, manager of government business Tom Koutsantonis said the order had not been removed but had instead expired at the end of the last parliament - an arrangement put in place by the former Liberal government.

“The previous government had four years to make this a permanent change and they chose not to,” he said.

“We think we don’t need an order to make us answer questions. The measure of accountability will be judging how we act and behave, rather than a temporary rule.”

Mr Koutsantonis said the government planned on answering questions in a timely manner, but providing a thorough answer may sometimes require longer than 30 days.

“It’s far too early for these types of criticisms. There are no examples in this parliament of us not answering questions in a timely way,” he said.

Mr Teague also highlighted the record of the previous Labor government on providing answers to questions taken on notice.

During the last parliament, all 173 questions taken on notice in the Legislative Council were answered, while 2365 of 2394 were answered in the House of Assembly.

During the term before that, when Labor was in government, 52 of 138 questions in the Legislative Council were answered, while only 287 of 939 were answered in the House of Assembly.

Mr Teague said, while the Labor government was in Opposition between 2018-2022, they routinely referred to the sessional order when demanding answers to questions.

“It’s clear Peter Malinauskas and the Labor Party don’t hold themselves to that same standard when it comes to transparency,” he said.