A Parliamentarian\'s Workload
Being a federal politician is an exciting interesting and demanding job. Good staff and support services are essential to doing the job well.
It is hard to believe, but there are people who think that politicians are on holiday when Parliament is not sitting. As if you could just rock up to deal with legislation and issues of public concern with no preparation or consultation! There are many more people who, quite understandably, are not at all sure what you do with your time. And then there are students whose course work includes finding out about the world of politics.
I've therefore created this little snapshot of my workload as a parliamentarian in 2005 to assist these three groups. It is by no means a complete list, and while it includes much of my parliamentary work, it excludes most of my constituency and political work. And I would not count 2005 as my busiest year.
No political year is typical. 2005 was a non-election year. The number of sitting days was very low - 57. 2005 was also the first year in three decades when the Government (from 1 July 2005) had more Senators in the Senate than did non-Government Senators. That meant the Government were highly resistant to anyone's ideas or amendments other than their own, and from the second half of the year they began to shorten and reduce the number of Senate inquiries.
No one politician's workload is the same as another's. Being a member of the House of Representatives or a Senator, being in government or not, having portfolio responsibilities or not, all affect your functions. But every politician has three main tasks to fulfil - electorate or constituency work; political and party work; and, parliamentary work.
With respect to the statistics, graphs and tables attached - just a couple of extra comments. Because of my portfolios, since 1996 I have had carriage of all stages of between one-quarter and one-third of all bills passing through the Senate. 2005 was no exception. Neither was the high number of amendments I produce. What was an exception was my low success rate in 2005. In the past my success rate for amendments has been high - in 2002 for instance I reached a 58% success rate. Now that the Democrats no longer have the balance of power, and the Government controls the Senate numbers, it is exceptionally difficult to get amendments accepted.
The other point to make is the effects of distance on West Australian politicians. The time difference with the Eastern States, coupled with the hours it takes to get from my Perth home to my Canberra base, means that unlike many Eastern Staters to be there one day you have to travel the previous day. One year I calculated I flew on 20 more Sundays than my Eastern States colleagues did, just to make the Monday meetings. Committee work entails a lot of travel too. In one exceptional week last year I made 11 separate flights in a small plane throughout Queensland for one Committee. It was fascinating 'though, as I got to regions I would never otherwise see.
One of my staff calculated that I spent well over three weeks (of 24 hour days) non-stop flying in 2005.
More generally, the Department of the Senate Annual Report 2004-05 (Report on Performance section) has a fascinating set of statistics and tables, see www.aph.gov.au.
Attachments:
| 
