Friday 12 October 2012

The cost of petty politics

I intend (when I get quarter of an hour) to sit down and make an estimate of how much Question Time in the Federal Parliament might cost [Would be interested to read your own calculations in the comments section]
I suppose you might take in the salaries of all MPs converted to an hourly rate.
The cost of a Press Gallery. The Parliamentary Staff
All that free water that keeps getting handed out to members!
The maintenance and upkeep of the Federal Parliament, the production of Hansard
Televising, news coverage etc. etc. etc

You might then analyse a typical session...and delete the time wasting, posturing, procedural games. And the Dorothy Dixers (questions that the Government asks itself)
Productivity would then most likely be halved at least. The cost therefore effectively doubled.

While some might argue that this is good for democracy, there are others of us who would suggest that it is an enormous waste of money spent appearing to be democratic

1 comment:

Eric said...

I happened to watch the action live on Tuesday. I'm impressed by Pyne's recall of literature in his speeches ()much as I find him annoying). Question Time needs reforming so they can get on with the job.