[Greens-Media] PARNELL: Greens bring Federal Parliamentary Reform to SA

[Parnell]

Media Release
Wednesday 15th September 2010


Greens bring Federal Parliamentary Reform to SA



Greens MLC Mark Parnell has moved to reform SA Parliament procedures in the wake of the recent agreement by the ALP, Greens and Independents to improve how the Federal Parliament works.

The SA reforms, moved in Parliament this afternoon, include an acknowledgement of country, and the transformation of question time to improve accountability.

"If these changes are good enough for the Federal Parliament, they should be good enough for the South Australian Parliament," said Mr Parnell.

"An acknowledgement of country before the Parliament sits is a long overdue reform, and a small but important step towards reconciliation.

"At the moment, question time struggles for relevance, with too much padding and not enough accountability.

"These simple reforms, already agreed to at a Federal level, will improve our democracy and help make Parliament a little bit more relevant and useful for the wider community," he said.

Reforms include:

§      An acknowledgement of country at the beginning of each sitting day

§      Questions during Question Time be limited to forty five seconds and answers to four minutes

§      Answers must be 'directly relevant to the question'

§      Scrapping the use of notes to answer questions






For further comment contact Craig Wilkins on 0434 007 893




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