It's a convention of parliaments across the world, but in the ACT, answers to questions on notice now come with a dollar figure showing how much public service time was spent compiling them.
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The Barr government has begun adding a dollar figure to answers to questions on notice from the opposition and crossbench.
A question on notice from Canberra Liberals' spokeswoman Vicki Dunne to ACT Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris about the number of communication staff in the minister's directorate and office apparently took 1530 minutes to complete, at an approximate cost to the taxpayer of $2296.66.
Mrs Dunne told the Assembly she was "gobsmacked" the information took that long to compile.
"I do not know whether they had them all in a room and they had trouble counting them or what," she said.
A later question from Mrs Dunne about why the government had begun estimating the cost of answering questions on notice allegedly took 30 minutes, and cost the taxpayer $65 to answer.
"Inclusion of this information is now a standard practice for all directorates in responding to questions on notice," it read.
"This is intended to transparently communicate the level of resourcing needed to respond to each question on notice and by extension support an understanding of why some questions may not be answered due to an assessment of when there would be an unreasonable diversion of resources."
Chief Minister Andrew Barr sought to link the practice to new freedom of information laws that came into effect on January 1, when questioned about it in parliament.
"The government felt in that spirit that it would be appropriate to have an estimate of the dollar cost based on the amount of time it takes to answer those questions," Mr Barr said.
Greens crossbencher Caroline Le Couteur asked whether the practice would extend into other areas of government information provision, like Fix My Street inquiries, FOI requests, or constituent responses to ministers.
"In a number of those areas, yes costings are and were previously standard practice, particularly in relation to FOI for those who under the old arrangements wouldn't automatically have an entitlement to receiving information for free," Mr Barr said.
"It's simply a reporting and accountability measure, Madam Speaker, and generally people are in favour of more data being available."
Liberal leader Alistair Coe questioned whether people would lose their jobs if they stopped filing questions on notice.
Mr Barr said all the ACT directorates maintained a large number of staff "who the vast majority of their time is spent responding to questions on notice".
The cost of the answer correlates to the hourly rates and classification of the staff required to answer questions taken on notice.
About 1500 questions questions on notice have been lodged since this parliament was elected in October 2016.
Most contain detailed sub-questions about the minutia of running government, and directorate staff have privately expressed frustration at being tied up for hours on end for what they feel is political point scoring.
However QONS, as they are fondly known, are a common accountability measure used in the Westminster system of government.
In the ACT's parliament, there's no limit to how many questions on notice can be asked, and they do not have to be asked verbally during Question Time (those are referred to as questions without notice).
Questions are added to the paper on the Friday at the end of each sitting week. Members have to lodge their questions with the clerk by midday on Thursday. Ministers then have 30 days to answer the question.
While there has been a significant up-tick in questions filed in this parliament compared to the Eighth Assembly, when about 800 were lodged, there are also more members to ask questions and ministers to answer them (the ACT Assembly expanded from 17 to 25 members at the last election).
By way of comparison, about 2500 questions on notice were filed during the Seventh Assembly from 2008 to 2012, about 2200 in the Sixth Assembly from 2004 to 2008, and about 1800 in the Fifth Assembly from 2001 to 2004.
