Anthony Albanese fails accountability test, say Liberals

The Coalition has accused Anthony Albanese of shutting down question time early and refusing to be accountable in parliament.

​The Coalition has accused Anthony Albanese of shutting down question time early and refusing to be accountable in parliament, breaking a key promise he made before the election.

The Coalition has accused Anthony Albanese of shutting down question time early and refusing to be accountable in parliament, breaking a key promise he made before the election.

Manager of opposition business Paul Fletcher said Labor had shown “contempt for the processes of parliamentary ­accountability and scrutiny” and had “consistently failed” to give factual answers during question time.

According to Coalition analysis of the second last week in parliament before the winter recess, the Prime Minister allowed only 18 questions from the opposition during question time over three sitting days.

By contrast, Labor asked 25 questions of the Morrison government in the final three-day sitting period before last year’s federal election.

The Coalition has also claimed that 40 per cent of question times – 15 out of 37 – were shut down by Mr Albanese before 3.15pm.

The criticism comes after ­Finance Minister Katy Gallagher refused to provide details on the advice she provided Brittany Higgins supporters ahead of her rape allegation being made public.

During a tense sitting fortnight, the government also resisted providing information on why it granted Ms Higgins a multimillion dollar compensation settlement after The ­Australian revealed her claim was based on losing 40 years of income.

Leader of the house Tony Burke said the Coalition’ statistics were “wildly wrong”, given the super-sized crossbench in the 47th parliament gets nine questions, reducing the number of questions asked by the opposition.

“Under this government, there has been more time for question time, more questions have been asked and answered and more time has been spent debating legislation,” Mr Burke said. “What’s behind this is a frustration from Mr Fletcher that at the last election the crossbench significantly increased, primarily at the expense of the Liberal Party.”

Mr Fletcher said Labor’s approach to accountability and scrutiny was “much worse” than under the Morrison government despite Mr Albanese’s promise to govern differently.

“Halfway through the year, the pattern is clear: parliamentary accountability and transparency is falling under Labor,” he said. “Labor has ducked, weaved, obfuscated and deflected – and consistently failed to give clear factual answers.”

“The troubling reality is that Labor has shown contempt for the processes of parliamentary accountability and scrutiny.”

Mr Albanese repeatedly promised to “change the way politics operates in this country” during his election campaign.

In his first speech to caucus when Labor swept to power last May, Mr Albanese pledged to do politics in a different, less-­divisive way and provide more time for parliamentary debates.