National's written questions blitz at a new level - Gustafson

A long-time politics professor says National has taken the practice of bombarding the government with written parliamentary questions to a new level. Over the past year National MPs have written more than 42,000 of them to coalition government ministers - and as a result, office resources are straining. One office has had to restructure to deal with the onslaught of questions, and others have requested extra resource at various times to help them cope with the workload. The KiwiBuild unit in the new Ministry of Building and Urban Development has had to hire someone whose job is primarily to deal with providing answers. Auckland University e-meritus professor Barry Gustafson told RNZ political reporter Gia Garrick the purpose of parliamentary questions seems to be changing.