Rhonda Rasmussen

Review of Australian Parliament

Parliament House if quite magnificent - but it is ...

Parliament House if quite magnificent - but it is a pity about the politicians display at question time. My partner and I happened to be in Canberra for the last Question Time 2014 and decided that it would wonderful to see our politicians, the people we elect to govern, in action.

Well what an horrendous disappointment. I have never been so disgusted with such bad behaviour. It was so bad that I actually had to walk out because I would have ended up saying something to both sides and also to the Speaker. When I went outside, some young school children also came out so I asked them what they thought. Their unanimous agreement was that "If they acted like that in school they would be suspended."

The whole session was a debacle. There was no intelligent debate or conversation from either side; members walked around with no apparent interest in what was being said; the speaker had no control and was completely inconsistent in her orders; there were constant and continuous interjections and then after questions were finished and the Labor politicians got up to speak, the entire LNP simply walked out.

Do new members of parliament have training in how to be rude, inconsiderate and bad mannered once elected?

How these politicians can be proud of themselves is beyond me. If they govern our country the way they participate in Question Time then heaven help Australia.