Questioning Question Time
Question Time is a venerable tradition in Parliament, carried down from the British House of Commons, in which members may query responsible ministers about matters pertaining to their portfolios, all the way up to the Prime Minister. The new Labor government decided that Parliament would sit on Fridays, but that there would not be Question Time, although they have not abolished it the rest of the week. This has not gone down well with the newly opposition LNP. First, under the previous government, Friday was not a sitting day. But it should be noted that it’s only a half-session, so offering an hour to QT just cuts into the regular business of governance. Today, the first Friday since Parliament was convened under the new rules, the opposition pushed the House into chaos, even temporarily routing the Speaker. It was a dummy-spit.

What I’ve seen of Question Time suggests what should be a worthy practice of ensuring government transparency and ministerial accountability is really nothing more than childish taunting, teasing, baiting, and point-scoring stunts. Members on either side hoot and holler like a pack of monkeys at every smirk and jibe. It is useless for anything more than letting off steam and seems at best merely to degrade the parliamentary system. I much prefer the system employed in the U.S. Nevertheless, this has been truly shameless behaviour, and represents – along with the various other showboating by former front-benchers like Peter Costello and Alexander Downer – an utter lack of leadership by Brendan Nelson. Is this how they intend to conduct themselves for the next three years? They’ll stay in opposition a long time, that way.

Update: It just gets worse. The opposition are clowns. No wonder they lost.