Queensland Parliament live: Question Time June 4, 2015

Bye for now

The clock has spoken. Question time, is done. For this month.

MVP - Verity Barton's shoes. They made it.

Theme of the day - "Errors of judgement". Bill Clinton had a few of those too.

The Industrial Relations bill will dominate the rest of the sitting. That is sure to be a fiery debate. The committee which reviewed it returned a 150-page report and couldn't make a decision. That's not surprising. But what will be interesting to see is where the Katters fall on it.

We'll see you at budget for more parliamentary good times. Thanks as always to Danielle Cronin for wrangling the interwebs and you, for reading.

Who had election promises on their bingo card? Because cross it off.

"Will the Treasurer publish an individual table in the upcoming Budget Papers showing the full fiscal impact of Labor's election commitments?"

"Yeah, like not selling our assets," yells Kate Jones.

BURRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNN

Take it away Ashton.

Verity Barton, helping out fellow parliamentarian.Credit: Chris Hyde

LNP backbencher Pat Weir just had their first go at asking a question."Earlier this week you gave a commitment to clarify if the Government's Union Encouragement Policy applies to the employees of statutory bodies and Government Owned Corporations and I ask: will you now answer the question?"

Except you can't say "you" in questions during question time. Because that would be human.

Lucky Verity Barton is there to lend a hand. Ms Barton has managed to don her shoes for this morning's session. Last night, she seemed to have been caught a little short during the vote for the disallowance motion, and ran into the chamber with her shoes in her hand. But she made it.

And in a hung parliament, that is all that matters.

It's like a redux of that dress debate. Colour us confusedCredit: Tumblr

We have a correction - we have just been informed Jarrod Bleijie's tie is blue and gold, not brown and gold.

We stand by its role as 70s car seat upholstery. Except we just upgraded the car to a Camaro.

This is not Andrew Powell but is a glorious hipster beard.

We're back to the usual business

"Will the Treasurer rule out transferring shares in any individual Government Owned Corporations to third-parties, including Queensland Investment Corporation or Queensland Treasury Corporation?, Andrew don't-call-me-a-hipster-beard-aficionado-despite-my-new-chin-blanket Powell wants to know.

Mr Pitt is avoiding answering this one. He's pulling out every political linguistic tool in his disposal to not answer the question.

He says the assets will remain in public hands. But given that QIC and QTC are both technically still part of the government, albeit the corporate arms of the government, a move to either would not technically be taking GOC shares out of public hands.

But it goes against the spirit of keeping assets public, because QIC and QTC pay for those shares, giving the government a budget boost. It's what happened with Queensland Motorways and generally how property transactions take place.

Keep an eye on this one come July 14.

Labor's Pine Rivers MP Nikki Boyd has been bequeathed the "honour" of delivering a dixer.

While that answer drones on, (can ministers at least pretend it is a 'question without notice' and not lift up their speech when answering?') snaps to Ms Boyd for her Back to the Future references in her speech last night.

Sure, she was arguing for an increase in registration fees, but she invoked Marty McFly to do it. Not sure Marty would agree, he always struck me as a future Republican voter, but still, the effort was appreciated.

NB: Hoverboard creators, you have until October 21 this year to get your act together and get our feet on one. Preferably while encased in self-racing shoes.

On another note, the public gallery is quite full today.

Either they were looking for a place out of the George Street wind tunnel of chilblains, or they actually care about democracy.

And a quick glance shows almost as many Mays, as Decembers. So take that Gen Y haters.

Haters Gonna HateCredit: Suppliers

Shane Knuth is up - he wants to know about whether there will be additional farming assistance, given the on-going drought.

Bill Byrne says he has announced an extension of various support measures and he is happy to talk the Katter MP through it - 80 per cent of the state is in drought at the moment.

Easy to forget given how often, and how hard, it has rained in the south east over the past six months.

Bill ByrneCredit: Chris Hyde

Devices check

Fourteen.

Howdy, to anyone down there reading along.

Stephen Bennett, the Member for Burnett, is up and he also wants to know about a Director-General - this time, whether Environment Minister Steve Miles has confidence in his DG.

While the chamber argues whether these questions are out of order or not, a bit of context - Labor has instigated a merit-based application process for senior public servants. All DGs have to re-apply and three months later, some are still unsure of whether they'll continue in their jobs. But it seems as though Minister Miles' DGs have nothing to worry about.

"I have an excellent working relationship with both Director-Generals of both the agencies I am responsible for," he says, adding that he will be happy to continue working with them, if they emerge victorious at the end of the application process.