Consumer and Business Services

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:45): By way of supplementary question, given that the government clearly was considering closing the Berri office, why did the government stop collecting data on customer usage of the very office 18 months before the closure occurred? In relation to the minister's assertion that customer usage had been tailing off over some years, will the minister take on notice data that supports that claim?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:45): I am not aware, as a fairly new minister, that data ceased being collected, as the honourable member asserts. I am happy to look into that.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: We know that the opposition come into this place all the time, making up facts and figures. We know they never do any research. We know that they are a lazy, dozy lot of opposition, so I refuse to accept any assertion the opposition make, because we have known time and again that they just make up things because they are too lazy to check their facts or to do any research. They have shuffled back into opposition after losing the unlosable election. They have shuffled back into opposition, pulled their opposition chairs over in front of their cosy fire, put on their slippers and they are busily dozing off in the chamber opposite us.

I will look at that, but I do not accept on face value that that is necessarily so. In relation to some of the statistics I do have, I have been advised that, in relation to total phone calls and counter inquires, throughout December for the Berri office it was 96 in 2009, it was 53 in 2010 and 48 in 2011.