Attorney-General's Department

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:56): Let's get back to some serious questions, shall we? My question is to the Attorney-General:

1. How many policy staff are employed in the Attorney-General's Department?

2. How does this compare to the number of policy staff employed under the former Marshall Liberal government?

3. How many bills has the Attorney introduced in his portfolio area as Attorney-General which were not already in train under the Marshall Liberal government?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:57): I thank the honourable member for her question. I will have to take that on notice. I don't have figures about how many people are employed in a particular area within government.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: But what I certainly can say is, I very much appreciate and respect the very, very hard work of those people not just in the Attorney-General's Department who are employed in policy areas, who are employed in legislative services areas, who do exceptionally diligent work supporting the work of government in the area that I am responsible for, but similar people employed right across government in a whole range of areas.

I don't have the exact figures of the areas of the legislation that we have introduced and areas of legislation that are brand-new things, such as reforming areas in relation to child sex offences, that we took a very strong stand in the lead-up to the election and we have in train and legislation that is passing these areas, but it is almost certainly too numerous to count.