Looking through the ‘Window on the House’: assessing the standard of Question Time in the Australian House of Representatives, 1991–2020

Abstract

Question Time is one of the most visible aspects of parliament and a key mechanism of government accountability. It has been much maligned, both for its ineffectiveness and its poor standard of behaviour, but there is limited evidence upon which we can test this. Considering growing dissatisfaction with Australian democracy, this article presents a longitudinal analysis of Question Time. The 30-year timescale represents a unique contribution to the literature–allowing an assessment of how Question Time has changed, rather than being a point in time assessment. We find that the quality of Question Time is highly variable, but we do not find evidence that Question Time has declined in quality. While this may reinforce the idea that Question Time is a robust institution, we conclude that the variability suggests a fragility, and that vigilance is required to ensure that its effectiveness is not allowed to be undermined.