Tuesday, July 17, 2007



Parliament goes live

While there's been a lot of effort focused in the last month on MP's efforts to protect their overinflated egos from public puncturing by resurrecting lese majeste and banning the use of images from the House for the purpose of "satire, ridicule or denigration", there is another side of the story as well - and that is a massive expansion in the coverage of Parliament. Where previously I've had to huddle around the computer listening to the webcast audio feed if I wanted to keep tabs on proceedings, from today there will be full video of all proceedings in the debating chamber. You can tune in here from 14:00.

If you're hoping for fireworks, you'll likely be disappointed. Other than Question Time, most of this week looks like it will be taken up by some of the most boring (but necessary) Parliamentary business ever: the committee stages of an Appropriations debate. But we might at least be able to see if anyone from ACT bothers to turn up.