The Tasmanian Greens will have one fewer question in parliament after Helen Burnett quit the party to sit as an independent.
Parliament voted on Tuesday to remove a question from the Greens and reallocate it to Burnett, keeping the total number at 17.
The shift follows Burnett’s move to the crossbench and has forced a reshuffle of parliamentary arrangements.
Greens deputy leader Vica Bayley said the party reluctantly accepted the decision.
“We are really reluctant and disappointed to lose a question,” he said.
“Question time is incredibly important. It is an incredibly important time to scrutinise the government and this government needs scrutiny more than ever.”
Bayley said the Greens had negotiated four questions on behalf of voters who elected five MPs and those constituents “have not gone anywhere”.
He argued that adding an extra question would extend proceedings by only four minutes.
“When you consider how much obfuscation, how much filibustering, how much nothingness actually happens in this place, an extra four minutes is really nothing to that,” he said.
The government and Labor backed the reallocation.
Eric Abetz said the change was “the most manageable solution to the circumstances” and noted Labor received seven questions for 10 members, proportionally fewer than the Greens’ original allocation.
Labor MP Ella Haddad said it was “the simplest and fairest way” to deal with the situation.
She acknowledged it was “messy” to keep making ad hoc changes during what has been “a very volatile period in Tasmanian politics”.
Despite the reduced allocation, Bayley said the Greens would make the most of their questions.
“We will redouble our efforts to use our three questions for targeted, strategic and revealing questions of government,” he said.
He listed the Macquarie Point stadium, the budget, Ashley Youth Detention Centre and salmon farming among issues requiring scrutiny.
“In the past, we have been effective and held the government to account with one question,” he said.
“We have done it with two questions and we can do it with three questions.”
The motion passed with the support of both major parties and without opposition from the Greens.
