January 1, 2009 – 6:12 pm
Back in November, I wrote about the Senate’s decision to use the final two sitting weeks to trial new procedures for Question Time, with the aim of making the process more relevant and effective. In short, questioners were given an extra supplementary question, Ministers had less time for their initial answer (2 minutes instead of 4) [...]
December 2, 2008 – 8:09 pm
It may sound implausible, but I have to admit that since leaving the Senate, I haven’t managed to find the enthusiasm (or the time) to follow every single debate that has occurred in that illustrious Parliamentary chamber. So I have to admit the following heartfelt declaration of adoration for the beauty and majesty of the [...]
November 13, 2008 – 10:56 am
Not long after the new Senate was sworn in back in August, there was a brief flurry of coverage about the possibility of some significant reforms being made to Question Time, with a few people finally having the honesty to acknowledge it was basically a waste of time as an accountability or information gathering mechanism. [...]
September 14, 2008 – 1:15 am
We have now seen the first two sitting weeks of the new Senate. Most attention was given to the rejection of the government’s legislation increasing the tax on luxury cars, with Family First’s Steve Fielding joining with the Coalition to knock off the Bill at the Second Reading stage, before any attempts could be made [...]
September 11, 2008 – 2:12 pm
It only took one Bill being defeated in the Senate for the hand-wringing to start about mandates and legitimate government actions being frustrated by an obstructionist Senate.
Paul Kelly went into hyperbolic overdrive in The Australian, going even further than Paul Keating in some gratuitous Senate bashing. Apparently, the new government is being “undermined by a [...]
