Opinion: Question Time is now a pointless vaudevillian routine
In State Parliament, Question Time has been reduced to a vaudeville performance fit for nothing more than brief flashes of sound and vision on the nightly broadcast news, writes Steven Wardill.
Opinion
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THERE are few more pointless rituals within the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy than Question Time.
It is dressed up in all the literature and teachings as an occasion of great import.
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Yet, in reality, Question Time has been reduced to a vaudeville performance fit for nothing more than brief flashes of sound and vision on the nightly broadcast news.
I’ve watched this horror show in the Queensland Parliament for many years now, patiently waiting for tender morsels of accidental honesty and career-defining episodes of stupidity to report on. There’ve been a few.
But these days it’s hard to resist the irrepressible pull of Instagram and Facebook on my mobile phone as democracy’s hour of integral action morphs into nothing but an incessant din.
In fact, perched on my stool above the proceedings and through the steel bars that prevent my power naps from turning to tragedy, I peer down on MPs of all persuasions using their phones for much the same purpose as I am.
SCOURGE OF MOBILES
Their forebears would be aghast that phones are allowed in the chamber at all.
Just imagine the confusion if they knew their successors were using phones to post witty tweets about their opponents or indulge in a bit of online window shopping.
There’s no reason why Question Time can’t be the important process it was meant to be.
The rules haven’t changed. State Parliament’s standing orders still say questions must be concerned with a minister’s responsibilities and answers must be relevant to the questions asked.
Sadly, in the years I’ve watched, the process has been vandalised to the point where it is unrecognisable.
Opposition members routinely just make political points dressed up as questions.
They know they won’t get an answer and wouldn’t know what to do if they got one.
Government ministers routinely provide answers not even remotely related to the question. Then the entire place is subjected to the absurd charade of “Dorothy Dixer” questions where government backbenchers pretend to ask questions, when really they’re just reading what they’ve been told to.
SPEAKER’S ROLE
Speakers may no longer wear the ceremonial wig but they still could make Question Time work the way it should.
However, the ornate chair that they all park their rear ends in seems to have an uncanny ability to dim their vim for independent thought.
On Wednesday, for example, the Opposition asked Annastacia Palaszczuk whether she’d fund a trial for a treatment against deadly silicosis disease.
When the Opposition took umbrage at the Premier’s answer saying it wasn’t relevant – which it wasn’t – Speaker Curtis Pitt insisted just talking about the topic would do.
“I believe that the Premier is outlining the Government’s response,” Pitt insisted, but not once did Palaszczuk address the question about funding the trial.
Later, Police Minister Mark Ryan whinged about being asked a question because he didn’t like the content. That was followed by Opposition police spokesman Trevor Watts being sat down because he didn’t know how to rephrase the content of his question.
Pitt isn’t the entire problem, but he’s part of it. I’ve seen Labor, LNP and independent speakers who couldn’t give a toss about tradition and happily turned Question Time into a farce. In fact, the only time it’s worked remotely like it should was when the Parliament had a Speaker who disliked certain members of his own political party more than his opponents. Maybe necessity is the reason why Question Time is no longer an opportunity to ask questions and have them answered.
POLLIES SPEAKING
The current crop of elected MPs aren’t all exactly agile inquisitors with the ability to interrogate an issue or great orators who can respond with verve.
Environment Minister Leanne Enoch looks like she needs a sick bag whenever she speaks.
But this whole macabre relic of accountability could be resurrected by simply making ministers answer questions. Question Time could be the occasion it is supposed to be if Speakers stopped allowing liberal interpretations of the rules. But the major parties are happy for this limp exhibition to continue because they don’t want to deal with proper parliament processes when in power.
Our MPs ought to be embarrassed.
But why should they be when their antics are no worse than what occurs on all those other trashy reality TV shows?
SECOND M1 MUST BE ON THE RADAR
ANYONE who travels regularly between Brisbane and the Gold Coast knows only too well how the M1 can severely impact their lives and their business.
A one-hour trip can turn into a three-hour nightmare if a single crash occurs.
The Palaszczuk Government has done well tackling this problem. It has dropped $75 million on the notorious Coomera exit and wrestled funding from the Federal Government to upgrade the Gateway Motorway merge, and the Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes stretch.
Next will come the Eight Miles Plains to Daisy Hill and Varsity Lakes to Tugun sections.
However, Building Queensland’s business cases for these latest two upgrades just demonstrates the folly of having a single road connecting the state’s two biggest cities. Northbound traffic is expected to slow to 58km/h at peak periods from the Logan River in a few years time, while by 2041 a trip between Brisbane and the Gold Coast will take twice as long as it does already.
Little wonder then that the Department of Transport and Main Roads has begun resumptions for the so-called “second M1” between Stapylton and Nerang.
However, it is concerning to see local Labor MP Melissa McMahon reckon that the projects aren’t worthwhile in the “short-to-medium term”. How would she know?
The Palaszczuk Government must do the work now to find out when this road will be needed. If it is built too late, the cost for southeast Queensland will be enormous.
IN BRIEF ...
RATES COULD BE PUT TO BETTER USE
DESPITE campaigning for the Federal seat of Ryan, Walter Taylor ward councillor Julian Simmonds still appears to be doing plenty of work at the local government level.
At least that’s the impression that the pamphlet he pumped out appears to give. Simmonds is pictured multiple times on the pamphlet’s back page.
Rather than looking to overhaul local government voting rules for no real reason maybe the Palaszczuk Government should bring councils into line with the State’s advertising rules.
ROUGH TROT FOR NEWMAN’S IN-LAWS
THINGS appear to be going from bad to worse for Campbell Newman’s in-laws. Last year police charged the former premier’s brother-in-law Seb Monsour after a long-running investigation into a $5 million investment fraud. And in recent days, there has been news out of Portland that a development company owned by Newman’s father-in-law Frank Monsour filed for bankruptcy proceedings just hours before its condominiums were due to be auctioned in foreclosure proceedings.
According to one local report, the Monsour company, which was developing condos in a historic church, had just $500 left in the bank.
GOOD WEEK: Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who got to credit her government’s energy policies for falling regional power prices during State Parliament.
BAD WEEK: Opposition energy spokesman Michael Hart, who has been sent to Parliament’s Ethics Committee for allegedly misleading statements about former Member for Rockhampton Robert Schwarten.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Resume your seats, you will,” Speaker and Star Wars fanatic Curtis Pitt adopts Yoda speak to quiet a rebellion in Parliament. May the Force be with us all.
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