Steps to improve the relevance of the Victorian Parliament

It is most unfortunate that the conservative parties in Victoria have taken the view that "if it was alright in 1851 when parliament was set up, it is alright now" and therefore have strongly resisted any attempts to change the way Members of Parliament are elected to Parliament.

Recent initiatives introduced by the current Bracks Government to change the method of election of members to the Legislative Council were strongly opposed by the conservative parties. Whilst the conservative parties continue to hold the balance of power in the Council the chances of smaller parties gaining representation even in one house in this State is negligible.

Thus any attempts to diminish the adversarial nature of the Victorian Parliament seemed to be doomed. This I believe is contrary to the Victorian population's wish, as I believe most of them would prefer to see political parties work in a more constructive manner rather than engage in shouting matches across the Chamber.

2. Non-Gender Specific Language

Apart from traditional Westminster the Parliaments I visited had all made a point of having non-gender specific language in the management of their Parliaments.

The Welsh and Scottish Parliaments use the terms Presiding Officer and Deputy Presiding Officers, although in most cases in the Welsh Assembly the members including the Presiding Officer call themselves by their first names.

Once again however in Victoria conservative Members of Parliament have at times quite strongly rejected and attempts for non-gender language. Even though the Speaker has indicated that he prefers to be addressed as "Honourable Speaker" rather than Mr. Speaker this has been ignored by the conservative parties.

3.Hours of Parliament

The hours of Parliament for the four Parliaments I visited were more sensible than ours and indeed in Scotland no votes are taken after 5pm on a sitting day to allow Members of Parliament with family commitments to attend to them.

The Parliaments often have their Committee stages operating at the same time as the plenary stages which does in my view use the time available more effectively.

Proposals to shorten parliamentary hours in the Victorian Parliament have always been opposed by the National Party.

Their view appears to be that if you work more reasonable hours you would have to sit more days that is, extend the parliamentary week to include Monday or Friday. In fact most members have to spend more time in Melbourne because of internal party meetings or Parliamentary Committee work, so the majority of Members of Parliament who live a long way from the city would often have to be in Melbourne anyway.

However there is an alternative. The newer Parliaments I visited had in a number of instances imposed time limits on various parts of business or indeed had shorter speaking times.

There appeared to be general agreement amongst the people I spoke to, that contributions to Bills can be limited to 5 minutes. In some circumstances where there were complicated bills this can be negotiated between the parties with the assistance of the Presiding Officer.