Too Much Bickering!!

Question Time… 8th August 2007 - As this was the second time I had heard Question time, I was a bit more aware of the process and found it interesting to explore the issues brought up in parliament, especially as it came a day after my last hearing, however once again I found the process quite frustrating and pointless.

The inability for people to rebut the claims made by fellow ministers again highlighted the ineffectiveness of the parliamentary question time process and added to the frustration I felt the day before. When Finance Minister, Minchin was asked by Senator Evans to explain the liberal government’s previous campaign that promised "interest rates at record lows", of course he felt the Howard government had been very effective in building and maintaining "a very strong domestic economy" as he says "The remarkable thing about that, is that even with this rate rise, mortgage interest rates still under this government are lower than they ever were, ever were at any time under the last labour government". At this the opposition began to get very noisy, yelling out things like "you continue to blame everyone else but yourselves", yet they are called to order and couldn’t talk. This action of the Chair ensuring others don’t speak, seems to defeat the purpose of the question time. Surely chances for ministers to interject questions or comments would increase the instance of straight forward answers as opposed to long winded, key message loaded "answers".

Overall I again found question time a little quite painful to listen to. Not because it contained words like "dividend", "inflation" and "surplus", but it was the use of sarcasm and derogatory comments that made up most of the hour that created an annoyingly bitchy atmosphere. The Hon. Senator Abetz started off with so much sarcasm in his response to Barnett’s question saying "Thanks Mr President, can I thank Senator Barnett for his question and commend him for his strong ongoing interest in cleaning up Australia’s building and construction sectors", which I know is an important tactic in shutting down the opposition and mocking their interest, however it becomes so repetitive and annoying.

A lot of other bullying tactics were evident this question time, with people in the background pressuring Minister Barnett when he stood up for a supplementary question yelling out "what’s your question, what’s your question, what’s your question?" to confuse and fluster the minister.
I also came away thinking – thank goodness I am not at the receiving end of any of these questions and accusations!!

This experience has definitely highlighted the fact that yes, I do have an interest in the issues that are discussed and the processes of the Australian government, however I definitely have little desire to be involved in such controversial matters or at the receiving end of the questions and criticism that is fired at different ministers.