Useful both ways
Green Party MP Julie-Anne Genter has also been a government minister before and knows about both sides of the written question process. She found the format useful either way.
“I have found written questions really helpful as an opposition member, but it does depend on the attitude of the ministers and the government of the day. My first six years in Parliament [2011-2017] I was in opposition, and we could get useful information from written questions, but I think that government tried to discourage us from asking by giving us unhelpful answers a lot of the time. But every now and then you got a really good answer,” Genter says.
“What I found most interesting as a minister [2017-2020] is sometimes I would sign off answers that would be information that I was really interested in, and it was easier to get that information from an opposition member submitting a written question than for me directly asking staff the question.
“In some ways that process is more direct, it’s quick, it can get factual information. I think it’s really helpful for the public that Parliamentarians have this ability to ask these questions,” she says.
Because there is so much competition to get an oral question in (given the limited number apportioned), written questions can be an alternative way of pursuing the probing of a minister. An oral question can be a follow-up to a written question, or vice versa.
Asked whether submitting copious written questions is ultimately a nuisance for ministers, Doocey suggests MPs bring their own style to how they answer a question.
“I would say some are more concise than others, some are more defined than others, and some probably at times value volume over value. But in the end that’s the democratic system, because not only is a minister being judged by the answers of a written parliamentary question but actually the opposition spokesperson is being judged by the quality of their questioning as well.”
Time consuming
In the final term of the previous National Party-led government, from 2014-2017, there were 41,526 written questions lodged.
When the National and ACT parties went into opposition for the next two terms, the number of written questions soared to 113,519 for the 52nd Parliament and a whopping 133,576 for the 53rd Parliament.
“As a minister [2017-2020] I had no problem signing off answers that were useful,” Genter says. “I did think at the time the opposition had a deliberate strategy of spamming us with huge numbers of questions just to slow us down, and that I didn’t think was very helpful to the democratic process.
“But when there are good questions and useful information is produced by the agencies in the ministries and sign-off by ministers I think that’s really important and helpful.”
After several months of the 54th Parliament, about 12,000 written questions have been lodged so far, a little shy of the rate that the Labour-led governments had to contend with, but still a large volume.