It might surprise your viewers but the government
and the opposition probably agree about 80%
of the time and what happens of course is
that the general public see Question Time
when that looks like what I call two dogs
barking. They are just at each others throats
and it's very heated and it's highly combative.
So I think the general public think that is
what happens all of the time but in fact it's
not, that's just for Question Time, and there
is a huge amount of theatre that is involved
with all of that. So the Opposition is trying
to drag down the Government and ask them the
tough question and literally put the sword
to the throat as much as they can. So it's
a test of not just your policy but also of
your personality. So that's what happens there
but otherwise there can be amendments raised
by the opposition, there can be debate within
the Chamber about how you can improve the
bill and it's really no one party has all
of the answers. That's the fact of it. And
this can help the way that legislation and
laws are framed. And it is really up to the
maturity of both sides on how they actually
deal with that because whether you are in
government or in opposition, you will have
different stakeholders or different interest
groups coming and saying, well, did you consider
this? And maybe it hasn't been fully considered
or the consequences weren't totally understood
at the time. So it's a rigorous process, it
can be combative at times but behind the scenes
there is I think enormous good will to try
and get the best results for the community.
More often than not.
