ANALYSIS: There's a long and rich history of politicians doing whatever they can to only answer questions they want to answer.
John Howard was a fan of talkback radio, often with a friendly host who would only offer up softball questions.
Kevin Rudd liked to pop up at short notice a long way from capital cities, ensuring experienced journalists with a detailed knowledge of federal politics were in short supply.
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At press conferences, Scott Morrison was an expert at talking for a long time without saying anything, cutting down time for further probing on all matters controversial.
On Friday, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk went down a different path, trying a number of tactics, before insisting she'd answered a question which she hadn't.
The issue at hand was the Wellcamp Quarantine Facility, which came with a $220 million price tag for taxpayers.
After abandoning it for quarantine last year, the premier then said other uses were being explored.
At a press conference last August, she cited "quite a few ideas" that Queenslanders would "hear in due course", without revealing what they were.
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There's a belief amongst some around Parliament House that there were actually no ideas, and this was a convenient line to save some face.
So, with the ultimate demise of Wellcamp over the weekend, we again asked the premier whatever happened to those ideas, with this question:
"Premier, last August you said there were lots of interesting ideas coming forward for Wellcamp that would be shared with Queenslanders. What happened to those ideas, and why were they never shared with Queenslanders?"
The premier responded with A-grade issue avoidance.
You can watch the video to hear it yourself, or view the transcript where she first talks about why Wellcamp was built, then lists someone else's ideas, before pivoting back to attacking a political rival.
Premier: "Well, Wellcamp was built because our hotels were at capacity. We were in a different scenario than what we are today. And the Wagners (a Queensland business family) have indicated they are looking at using that facility for agricultural workers. I saw comments today about (Opposition MP) Jarrod Bleijie up there. More interested in props than policies, and it's about time the opposition put together some policies."
After 26 seconds of this, and with the question no closer to being answered, I reminded the premier the question was about the government's proposed ideas.
Journalist: "My question was about the ideas though."
Premier: "Well, no. I've answered your question."
Journalist: "That's not a government idea though. That's the Wagners'."
Premier: "We were in a different situation to COVID. I've made that very clear. Thank you."
With that, the premier stepped back from the microphone and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stepped in to take control and move questions on.
Alas, mystery still remains about the unrealised ideas that could have given the taxpayer some value for the $220 million facility.
It is also fair to say the premier was not impressed at these questions during a national cabinet press conference.
Judging by social media commentary though, it appears voters were equally unimpressed at her responses.
People can draw their own conclusions, but one takeaway is voters don't care about the circumstances in which a question is asked.
But when it comes to their taxpayer dollars, they would like it answered.
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