Question Time

Given that yesterday was the 20th and my flight is on the 23rd, I thought that it might be a great idea to actually go see some of Canberra. Sure, I've been to Civic and all that, but Parliment House....not so much.

So, I hopped on a bus and went down there. Pics of these would accompany the post, but I left my digital camera back at the dorm. Aren't I smart.

First I went to Old Parliment House, which has been turned into a museum. Its very cool to learn about the history of the building and government. I really liked the exhibit on the press gallery, me being a media nerd and all.

You see, unlike Washington D.C., Canberra's a small place. So, ministers and journalists kind of would run into one another, alot. One quote from a journalist was that he felt that the press could sway votes in a way because of this interaction. The ethics of that won't be debated here, but its a point to ponder.

After Old Parliment, it was off to New Parliment House. The new digs the government has are nice. Again, this is where pictures would come in handy.

I started off going to the Senate, which is red in colour. This was to represent the red in the Outback. I arrived just in time to see a vote, and after it was taken just about everyone left. Some guy began giving a speech on small business, and all the while, Senators were just getting up and moving off. At one point, two Senators who had been chatting during the speech laughed, which caused a retort from the small business advocate. They apoligised...and left. I almost felt bad for the speaker.

One of the cool things about the Senate (and Parliment in general) is that there is a lot of pomp and circumstance with everything. There's tradition that carries over from the Brithish Parliment. In the Senate, they have the Usher of the Black Rod, which is a guy, carrying a black rod, that leads the President of the Senate around.

After listening to an intellectual property debate (something far less interesting then I had hoped it would have been) I decided I'd had enough red and went out into the foyer. I picked up my ticket for Question Time and headed into the House of Representatives.

Here, it was green, representing the forests of Australia. A nice touch. The public galleries were full, and at 2:00 the Speaker interuppted a representative's speech and promptly began Question Time.

I didn't know what to expect, really. And what I got was a solid hour of entertainment. Question Time is hilarious.

For example, the first question was to the Prime Minister and it dealt with economic growth. John Howard replied to the question and made every attempt to make Kevin Rudd (leader of the Opposition) look real bad. He mainly attacked the fact that Rudd had used two incomparable sets of figures to try to demonstrate a lack of growth. All the while, he's speaking in this sort of condescending tone. The best line of the whole answer was, "We'll talk about something the Leader of the Opposition knows nothing about: progress."

Of course, the representatives are not quiet during this. They heckle the speaker (one Labor Party member called Howard a crook during one of the PM's answers). They get a warning from the Speaker of the House, but that doesn't really stop them. The best part of the day came when a rep. asked Howard if he knew if the findings from a voting poll had been given to certain people. When Howard responded that he had not authorised the release of such information the Labor Party roared, basically calling Howard out on dodging the question.

A little while later, Howard was asked a very similar question by Labor, to which one member of the Liberal Party promptly stood up, prompting a shot from the other side, "Ah, THERE SHE IS!" She pointed out that the same question could not be asked twice, but the Speaker allowed the question anyway.

And so it went for about an hour. Occasionally, Liberal members would ask the Government (Liberal party) questions. These were used to attack Labor's policies and tactics. I was hoping that the Opposition would be asked some questions, but they were not.

(Sidenote: In Australia, and possibly elsewhere, the party in power is known as The Government, while the minority party is The Opposition. If we used the system in America for Congress, right now the Democrats would be the Government, the Republicans the Opposition.)

In addition to being more entertained than I thought I would have been (lets be honest, its politics...) I kept wondering how George Bush would handle Question Time. The most he has to put up with is Democrats booing him at the State of the Union a few years ago, and that was a controversy. Regardless of your opinion of his politics, its pretty much agreed that Bush is not a gifted speaker (you can, after all buy Bushism calanders) so I reckon that something like question time would be an...interesting experience for Bush. We'll leave it at that.

I do not have any pics from inside the chambers, as they didn't allow cameras, but I will have some of the building up later, either tomorrow or Saturday which means they're coming from America.

I'll have one more post from Australia at least.

Cheers,

Alan