Ich habe genug gehabt!

I suppose most people don't watch Question Time for reasons that are pretty obvious; principally no real questions are asked and no real answers are given.

The Opposition seem intent upon catching the Government out and the Government seems intent upon not answering anything that is put to them. I would not want to suggest that things are some how worse in this Parliament than they were under the Liberal Government, it seems to me the same sort of game playing there too. Tricky Questions and No Answers!

There seemed to be some sort of agreement with the Three (or more) Wise Men who were targets for allied government with the two major parties that Question Time would improve. This would include: the cross benchers being able to ask genuine questions, a limit to how far ministers could wander off the path, and certainprocedural improvements.

It doesn't seem to me that this has worked very well at all. A couple of weeks ago, for example, on every day Question Time was interrupted by the same procedural interruptions ...the Opposition attempted to censure the Government on the same grounds on every day (see here). One would have thought after once and even twice the point would have been made. But no! Day after day 30 mins of MPs time (all Lower House members being present ) was taken up with everyone from the PM down having to wait for the certain failure opf the process.

This week's manifestation has been the Opposition interrupting every Minister's answer with so-called points of order. Even to a novice like me it was always apparent under the revamped rules that most of the sorts of points of orders had been re-ruled on previously many times...and the Speaker's rulings are pretty obvious.

Yesterday Anthony Albanese as Leader of the House, asked the Speaker to rule that these frequent so-called points of order were actually "unruly behaviour".

The Speaker could probably do no other than dismiss this challenge. But he is obviously getting testy. The rather 'twee' Liberal Christopher Pyne, Manager of Opposition Business, who so often spearheads these points of order was 'named' by the Speaker and then (in another time wasting vote) was ejected from the House for a day (does his pay get docked?)...I suspect dear Harry is finding all this a little wearing

Just Julia

I am inclined to think that Julia Gillard is not the ambitious vixen that some would try to caricature as.

She seems to me to have been about as open as you can be about her desire to lead the nation, and also as reluctant as you must be to pursue this with the sort of ferocity that many of her male counterparts would only too happily indulge in.

The absolute and utter hypocrisy of much of what transpired as comment yesterday on all sides of politics, almost infuriating if not so utterly transparent and laughable.

I mean, who could fail to be aghast at the audacity of the mad monk standing up there lecturing the Labor Party about how no leader should be treated as Rudd was by the bovver boyz of his own party.

I mean if he wanted to be taken seriously he should at least have been made to look Malcolm Turnbull in the eye while he was saying this.

Having worked for over thirty years in an institution (the Anglican Church) which is even more male-dominated than the Parliament, I hope for our country what I believe is true also for the Church. And that is, that female leadership will be different in style from all-male leadership.

There are those who find this laughable, who tend to suggest that women are more ruthless than men and only get into power by being more power-driven than their male counterparts (some of those voices were heard yesterday).

In my experience the proponents of this are very often men who have been rolled by strong women who are not prepared to be patronised.

What seems to be truer, is that women rather value and encourage certain loyalties rather than others. They are not so driven by the need to 'win' so much as to 'succeed'. This might seem a subtle, even nuanced, difference. But it is rather important.

Winning is rather short-term, where success is a much more wholistic idea.

I think Ms Gillard's language indicated that she is aiming to succeed rather to win. Kev's problem (and I suspect Abbot's) is that they have to win

The crap that passes for democracy

I was watching question time yesterday while I was having my lunch.

The Leader of the Opposition began by trying to move an urgency debate....leave wasn't granted...it took 20 minutes to go through the process because instead of taking the refusal on the voices the Opposition insisted on a division. Then the seconder, Joe Hockey, was gagged but in the 30 seconds allowed before the Leader of the House (Albanese) got to his feet Hockey screamed in a most unparliamentary way ...what must the Gallery have thought of democracy in action.

Then the erstwhile member for Kennedy, wild-cannon Bob Katter, got up and did the same. Again although it was obvious the gag was going to applied...we had to have three divisions...and this time a 10 second rant from the leader of the Nationals. What game playing (on both sides). Another 20 mins

I toyed with the idea of trying to calculate how much it actually cost to have the whole House of Reps sitting around on their backsides playing meeting procedure...but I'll leave that up to you

Most receiving a salary in excess of $120,000 per annum. And generous allowances

If you assume they may work 60 hours a week for 48 weeks of the year then each person's posturing cost $40 or so and there are 150 of them

Of course not all were present!!

And some are paid much more.

This doesn't also allow for the staff of the House.

Or the costs of running it.

So I didn't bother!

For those who think Question Time is a waste any way.

Well yesterday was even worse.

By some chance I happened to be awake after midnight when it was being replayed. Fortunately they had the good sense to not replay the crap that passed for democracy yesterday afternoon

SA Great

ABC News reported on the death of Clyde Cameron, no doubt one of SA's great politicians.
Though variously described as one of the "great haters" he was also one of the great wits of the Parliament no doubt stories will be told in the next few days.
This "great hate" stemmed from the harsh background of the pre and post war periods which exposed whole areas of Australian life where the lowly poor were simple never going to get on. Cameron saw himself as their champion.
The ABC eulogy went as follows

"From the shearing shed, to the union office, to Gough Whitlam's front bench, Clyde Cameron's career as an ALP hard man was cemented early on.

Born in Murray Bridge, South Australia, in 1913, the one-time shearer ascended through the ranks of the Australian Workers' Union before being elected to the federal seat of Hindmarsh in 1949.

He sat on the opposition benches from 1953 to 1972, before becoming the minister for labour, immigration and consumer affairs in the Whitlam government.

Former prime minister Bob Hawke once described Clyde Cameron as a "great hater".

But it was his passionate views that put some offside, and in 1975 Gough Whitlam sacked him from the frontbench.

Clyde Cameron stayed on as Science Minister before retiring in 1980.

He spent his remaining years as an author and political historian.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has paid tribute to Mr Cameron.

"It was with sadness this morning that I learned of the passing of former federal member for Hindmarsh, Whitlam government minister and leading light of the Australian labour movement, Clyde Cameron," he said.

"From his early days in South Australia as a shearer, union organiser and industrial advocate, and throughout his parliamentary career, Clyde Cameron was dedicated to defending the interests of working people.

"As a cabinet minister in the Whitlam government, Clyde's appointment of now High Court Justice, Mary Gaudron, to prosecute the case for equal pay for female workers in the Arbitration Commission made history.

"Clyde was a leading advocate for pension increases, the provision of child care to support working women, and greatly improved the pay and conditions of public sector workers during his term as minister for labour and immigration.

"Although his career was not without controversy, Clyde Cameron's passion and commitment for working men and women remained paramount.

"This was illustrated by his 31 years loyal service to the families of Hindmarsh.

"Clyde Cameron retained throughout his life a great sense of pride and history.

"He will be sorely missed, particularly by those for whom he always stood so strongly."