Wentworth MP Allegra Spender’s push to improve politicians’ behaviour

Independent MP Allegra Spender is fighting to reduce the ‘shouting, mocking and insults’ that occur in the chamber, stating it would cause them to ‘lose your job’ in ‘any other workplace’.

Ms Spender says MPs should be subjected to a code of conduct while in the chamber. Picture: Martin Ollman

Teal independent Allegra Spender is fighting to reduce the “shouting, mocking and insults” that occur in the chamber, stating the behaviour of politicians would cause you to “lose your job” in “any other workplace”.

The Wentworth MP is aiming to improve the behaviour of politicians and increase accountability during question time, backing a reduction of Dorothy Dixers – pre-arranged questions given to government backbenchers to ask ministers.

She says MPs should also be subjected to a code of conduct while in the chamber, which would require a change in standing orders.

Backing her inquiry is a survey with more than 1100 responses which found 87 per cent of respondents were either very dissatisfied or somewhat dissatisfied that questions are often not answered.

Independent Member for Wentworth, Allegra Spender at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

Asked whether behaviour in parliament reflected the “four key values of dignity, fairness and respect”, 63 per cent said no, while only 35 per cent said sometimes.

Ms Spender said there was a “disconnect between how we as a community expect politicians to behave and how politicians behave”.

She said increasing transparency of the government was particularly important given Labor’s “big majority”.

However she expressed concern over its overhaul of freedom of information laws which would block requests which would take more than 40 hours to collate, banning anonymous requests and initiate upfront fees.

Ms Spender said the “friendless bill” appeared to be backed up by “very little justification”.

While Labor said the changes were needed to prevent AI bot-generated applications from bad actors, departments have yet to substantiate the claims.

“They should be particularly wary of not being as accountable as they should be, and I think they could lead in this space, but they’re not,” she said.

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Originally published as Wentworth MP Allegra Spender’s push to improve politicians’ behaviour