Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - I rise in sheer frustration and chagrin once again at what I see as government contempt for this place and for the questioning process we have in place here. I specifically want to refer to questions that I asked on 29 September, which I have raised on a number of occasions, relative to the fox task force.

Mr Parkinson - If you'd asked me about this, I would have given you the answer and you wouldn't need to be speaking now.

Mr DEAN - Madam President, I have asked the question for a long time. I can tell you the reasons I have not been given the answer and that is that the questions have been too difficult for the Government to answer. That is very clearly the fact. I had a phone call this morning to tell me that a release was going to be made that would interest me and it was not long after that that I was contacted by the media to ask me what my response was. I said, 'I am still waiting for answers to my question, but this is the reason I did not get the answers, quite obviously' - and that is in relation to the scats and the bringing of scats into this State. Permits were necessary and Rod Andrewartha, the Chief Veterinary Officer, has now come out and made a statement. He starts his statement off by saying that anyone wishing to bring fox or dog scats into Tasmania will require a permit from today. Well, that is contrary to the position I have had of where the fox task force has required the public to get permits to bring these in previously. There is lots of conjecture about this as to where it stands and what is happening and all of a sudden we have statements being made by the Chief Veterinary Officer of some concerns about hydatids being introduced into the State. They are all areas that I have raised previously. I will bring those answers back into this Chamber at the right time to demonstrate what has been happening and what is going on.

It annoys me, Madam President. This question was asked about nine weeks ago -

Mr Parkinson - I have an answer for you.

Mr DEAN - very simple questions that could have been answered. They could have simply said, 'Yes, we accept the question. They do need permits. There have been errors made, we are setting it up and we are getting it right now to move forward', or whatever it is.

Mr Parkinson - I have an answer for you, it just has not been ticked off by Cabinet. That will happen Monday and then I will give it to you.

Mr DEAN - When is Cabinet going to tick off on it?

Mr Parkinson - Monday.

Mr DEAN - So I will not get the answer tomorrow while the Parliament is sitting this year. I will get the answer sent up to me sometime, I suppose, or when we sit next year sometime.

Mr Parkinson - You will get it next week.

Mr DEAN - It is not acceptable and there ought to be some time frame put on it. I get sick of being treated with that sort of contempt - and I think other members might from time to time. It is not good enough. In future I will probably put all my questions on 24 hours' notice to see if I can get a result. It is becoming pointless by the time we ask the questions and get the answers. I guess it will be in the papers tomorrow and on the news tonight, and hopefully it is as a result of questions that I have asked that this has been brought out, that the questions were looked at and a position was stated. I will have more to say about this matter later on, Madam President, I can assure you.