When your competition has just wiped the floor with you it’s not easy to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get on with the job of trying to win next time.

But the Liberal Party’s debonair Dawesville MP Zak Kirkup seems to be having no problem pursuing his Labor prey by hounding them with question upon question.

At last count the MP — who as a schoolboy handed John Howard a business card that read “Zak Kirkup, Future Prime Minister” — has peppered new ministers and their staffers with more than 700 questions.

As annoying and time-consuming as much of the probing might be, protocol dictates that the government of the day must respond in writing.

That means Kirkup can quiz the new boys and girls in town about anything, right down to what’s been added to the stationery cupboards since the change of government.

“How much has been spent on pens and pencils,” was one question to the Premier and his Cabinet. “How much has been spent on alcohol, office plants, coffee machines, coffee or coffee pods?”

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Kirkup used to work in former premier Colin Barnett’s office and so he knows a thing or two about machinery of government and how much it costs to run.

But some of his questions pre-date the McGowan Government, including one about a Department of Fire and Emergency Services nosh-up on March 3.

“Who attended the dinner, was it a set menu or ‘a la carte’, if it was a set menu, what options were available to attendees, was alcohol consumed and if so, what was consumed, what was the total breakdown of costs for the dinner?”

Needless to say, there are some in the corridors of power who are losing patience with the forensic approach to questions, which they regard as frustrating and frivolous.

Camera Icon You’d look happy too, if you had just asked 700 questions.

Attorney-General John Quigley fittingly used question time in Parliament last week to hit back at the unending stream of questions on notice by accusing Kirkup of stalling the fight against organised crime.

“The member for Dawesville has done everything he can to frustrate the Corruption and Crime Commission and the Director of Public Prosecutions in their task of pursuing Mr Bigs,” Quigley said.

“He wants the DPP to take prosecutors off the very important task of prosecuting the Claremont serial killer and prosecuting methamphetamine dealers to say how many pens and pencils she has in her office — and how many pens and pencils by name and type does each prosecutor have.”

That might be stretching it, but Kirkup’s latest batch of questions suggest the young Liberal won’t be putting his cue in the rack any time soon. He’s now asking the Premier and Minister for Women’s Interests about Sexpo.

“In relation to Transperth advertising which promoted Sexpo, a sex industry convention, was the minister or their staff aware that one of the sponsors displayed on the advertising promoted a ‘hardcore live-steaming pornographic’ website,” Kirkup wants to know.

“Does the minister believe that it is right for the Government to profit from sexist and sexually exploitative advertising?”

Camera Icon Zak Kirkup with Emily Nutbeen at the opening of the Aloft Hotel in May. Credit: The West Australian

The Government’s response to that loaded question is pending, but Transperth gave The West Australian this answer yesterday.

“The advertisement in question did not include the URL address,” a Transperth statement said. “Internet users would have to search and then would only be allowed after agreeing to an adult-content warning button. Notwithstanding this, we instructed APN Outdoor to remove the advertisements as quickly as possible — all were removed by June 2.”

So, you can see that the reason Kirkup won’t let up is because he’s already gleaned some good information from his toilet-roll length of questions.

And a Government that was swept to office in a landslide needs to be held to account — even on the less important matters of State.

Kirkup also asked whether the Premier had given any direction to his ministerial colleagues or their staff about having contact with Labor’s long-running sore, Brian Burke.

“The Premier verbally advised ministers that they were not to have any contact with Brian Burke,” was the Government’s response.

On the subject of Burke, the Opposition, spurred on by former premier Colin Barnett, is continuing to prosecute the argument that the political landscape is ripe for another repeat of WA Inc or the sort of scandals that broke the Labor government in the mid-2000s.

Camera Icon Zak Kirkup Liberal candidate and his fiance Michelle Gadellaa

Barnett told Parliament last week that Labor’s decision to have two of its MPs on the CCC oversight committee together with one Greens MP and only one Liberal was the start of a slippery slope.

“This is an extremely serious issue and I am dismayed that some new members think this is something to laugh at,” he said in the Legislative Assembly.

“I will remind members about a little of the history. New members come in here and sit and giggle.”

Barnett is fixated with the idea that history will repeat itself and a young firebrand MP such as Kirkup is following his lead, determined to be the one who unearths information that proves the former premier right.

The Labor Government is adamant the two generations of politicians are just desperately clutching at straws.