Question Time

Ministerial Travel

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment about overseas travel.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: During question time on 1 May this year, the minister was asked whether he had sent any follow-up emails after a trip to Europe. The minister responded to that question and stated, 'I have already sent some emails and I have received some' emails. The minister went on to say about the emails that he had sent, 'Only a couple, only single syllable words.'

Since then, the opposition has submitted an FOI request seeking copies of those emails. The documents provided to the opposition contained no emails from the minister. There can only be two possible reasons for this: the first is that the minister did not in fact send any of the emails as he so boldly claimed to this parliament and he has deliberately misled this chamber, and there are significant consequences; or, secondly, the minister did in fact send the emails and the law has likely been broken by not disclosing them under the FOI regime, or he sent them from a personal account, thus likely breaching the State Records Act and the FOI regime.

The simple question is: did the minister in fact send the emails or not? Did the minister send the emails that he claimed in parliament or did he mislead parliament by not sending them?

The PRESIDENT: Leader of the Opposition, I will rule out of order not the question but most of your lead-in since you cannot argue, you cannot debate, in your short explanation. But I am allowing the question, ruling the question itself in order, and the short reference to the emails to which the question refers.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:19): I thank the honourable member for his question. My recollection is that I received an email or two and I forwarded them into the office to respond to them.