It's all just politics...

. 

 Tuesday, the Political Communications class I am enrolled in at UC went on an excursion to Parliament House for the day.  We met at Parliament for a tour that took us around the back rooms where the Members' of Parliament (MPs) offices are located and were able to meet a few interesting people who work in the Parliament Building.

(Fun fact: the Australian Coat of Arms [below, right]  features a Kangaroo and an Emu because neither animal is capable of walking backward... a nice "perpetual forward motion" metaphor)

We were able to meet Karen Middleton, the Chief Political Correspondent for Special Broadcasting Service, one of the main networks in Australia.  She was very interesting to listen to-- she told us about what a typical day would be for her, working basically 12 hours a day to have a segment for the 6:30 news every evening.  She has many opportunities to travel to other countries and meet with officials, like a trip to the United States she will take this month.  It was interesting to hear her talk about going to the US.  She has been around to meet Presidents Clinton, George W. and Obama, but she said that every time she is in the White House, she feels like a school girl and is giddy the entire time.  In talking to a few people, I get the feeling that the US government is like the rich, popular kid that it is exciting to get to hang out with every once and a while, which is definitely a new perspective.

Macey from Idaho and Matt from Nova Scotia (above) are in the class with me, so this was an adventure for all of us.  During our tour we could hear a few students whispering in excitement after someone would walk by us... but even if we were told names, we would still not know who most of the people were.  Matt was able to explain to Macey and me about some of the governmental procedures since there are similarities between the Australian and Canadian governments, but we all learned heaps from the experience. 

 

The building itself is quite interesting.  It is no more than 25 years old and is laid out beautifully.  In the photo above, the ground floor is usually off limit to visitors while the second floor is open, so a fountain is in the atrium so that guests can not overhear what officials are saying beneath them.  Below is the foyer of Parliament House.  Notice the clock in the top left- whenever the House or Senate is being called together, an alarm sounds and a green or red light flashes for five minutes while they assemble.  It was really annoying at first.

After our tour, we sat in on Question Time with the House of Representatives.  This was most definitely a new experience.  Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott were there with the House of Representatives divided into parties.  Each member sat behind the official that lead their party, and each party would ask questions of the other regarding policies, a tax on carbon emissions on this day.  This seems fine and dandy, but in practice, it was rather chaotic to me.  Gillard and Abbott sat at a table facing each other, and when one would speak, the opposing party would yell and jeer at the other.  When things got heated (about every two minutes) the Speaker of the House would call order and tell people to stop talking and sit, including the Prime Minister.  One MP was dismissed from the room after yelling an obscene comment, and others were warned.

It was a new experience, for sure.  Our legislature has too many people involved to have such a setup, there are only 150 total representatives in Australia's House, but it seemed almost childish to watch such bickering back and forth- one member of the Labor Party referred to Tony Abbott as "carbon's best friend" and there was a lot of petty name calling.  I'm used to seeing things like that during election time, not so much during legislation.  The stark division in the House and the harsh language used throughout the meeting made me feel a lot better about how our party differences seem to be, but, all in all, it was a great experience.