THE state government's refusal to address concerns about the future of the Shellharbour Motor Registry has prompted the city's MP to seek a change to rules around questions tabled in Parliament.
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In June, Anna Watson claimed a dozen jobs could be at stake if the Roads and Maritime Services' registry closed and recent questions to Minister for Finance, Services and Property Dominic Perrottet have failed to provide clarity.
The Labor Shellharbour MP asked the minister if the centre would remain open or whether the government would close it in favour of a new Service NSW office, like the one operating in Wollongong.
Mr Perrottet said Service NSW was "planning the rollout of further points of presence" in the Illawarra, including at Warrawong and Corrimal.
"Service NSW will continue to keep staff, customers and the wider community informed of its plans to expand service reach while delivering value for money for taxpayers," Mr Perrottet said in his response.
Ms Watson hit back, saying the government was simply "scared to death to level with the local community".
"Ministers appear more happy to dodge, evade, obfuscate, mislead and in some cases just plain lie rather than provide even the most basic of factual information about issues of concern that they have responsibility for," she said.
"It is quite frankly totally unacceptable for ministers to refuse to provide relevant information to very clear and direct questions about the future of local services."
Ms Watson said she would raise her concerns with the Speaker, South Coast MP Shelly Hancock.
"I will be raising ... the need to alter the Standing Orders (rules used to manage the work of the house) to ensure that questions, be they without notice or on notice, must be answered with directly relevant and factual information," she said.
"The bureaucratic way questions are answered by ministers at the moment make a mockery of the whole mechanism of keeping the government and ministers accountable."
Meanwhile, parliamentary secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward says a new Service NSW online account will go live in September.
Mr Ward described the move as a "major step towards customers having a single view of their various dealings".
"One of the frustrations of dealing with government today is being asked for the same details multiple times by different departments," Mr Ward said.
"Customers should only ever have to tell us once."
