Mud Slinging in Question Time - It's not ok

I switched on Question Time today. Whenever I do this, I am inevitably disgusted by the behaviour of all members of parliament. These are the individuals who represent us, the people, and they behave no better than common school children.

I understand that the system is inherently adversarial due to the ideological opposition of the two primary parties however, I do not believe that this requires the litany of name-calling (see Treasurer Swan’s masterpiece of “knuckleheads”) or jabs (see Prime Minister Gillard’s comments about “pawing at the bottom of the barrel”). This conduct occurs on both sides. The problem for me is that this atmosphere is unproductive and ultimately irrelevant to the role of a politician, and indeed the democratic process.

Our politicians are our leaders. They represent us, and we as a nation take our cues from them, regardless of what anybody says. When we see these leaders making catty comments at each other, how is this teaching school age children to be kinder and nicer to each other? It isn’t. 

Parliament is a space for legislating, for ensuring that all members are doing the best they can by their country and their electorate. When the Prime Minister uses the space to air a personal beef with the Leader of the Opposition – for fifteen minutes no less, this is not constructive. The famous misogyny speech of a few weeks back was not something to be lauded, as the Prime Minister was not standing up for the women of Australia – she barely mentioned all Australian women. She made repeated reference only to how she was “personally offended”. She did nothing to answer the question actually put to her (which was an entirely reasonable question), but instead decided to character assassinate Mr Abbott, citing her moral superiority as a reason to avoid actually answering his question. 

That being said, I am wearying of the microscrutiny placed on Ms Gillard. Questions about her involvement slush funds when she was still a practicing lawyer, or whether or not she received favours from other firms or groups are tiresome and do not relate to any policy or politics. So what if Prime Minister Gillard did receive shady benefits? Does that impact her policy making now in the form of favouritism to those special groups (unlikely given the overwhelming presence of specific power brokers and interest groups in Labor), and do such favours continue today? Those are the questions I would love to be asked during Question Time, in a calm and reasonable manner. Without name calling, or snarky responses and remarks. Just a group of (hopefully) intelligent, reasonable adults discussing the impacts of their policies, and responding to questions which should hopefully clarify elements of those policies previously unclear. 

Question time is great, because it can enable a transparency in the democratic process, but I think it is simply a pitch for a slinging match. Someone said to me the worst thing for Australian politics was televising Question Time, because it showed Australians what politicians actually did in Parliament, leading to the disillusionment we see now. That’s a shame, because it could be so much more.