[LINK] It is Time for Parliament to Follow the Rest of Australia Online

[Tom Worthington]

The Australian Parliament's first hybrid sitting went okay. I suggest it 
be made permanent and online voting be implemented.

In the last few months the barriers which were thought to exist to stop 
online working were overcome. There are teachers, judges, lawyers, 
doctors, physiologists and other professionals helping their clients 
online every day. In some cases Parliaments had to make minor changes to 
the law to facilitate this, but mostly there was no law preventing 
online working, just some administrative procedures.

There is no law preventing the Parliament meeting online, just a lack of 
will to do it. It is time for MPs and Senators to follow the example of 
tens of thousands of other Australians and make the minor changes to 
their routine to work online. This will have benefits for the nation 
beyond the current COVID-19 emergency.

During my term as President of the Australian Computer Society I chaired 
the first meeting of the ACS national council by video conference. Even 
among computer professionals there was some reluctance to do this, but 
it worked fine. At the end of my term in 1997 I suggested electronic 
sittings of Parliament with members in their electorate offices: 
https://www.tomw.net.au/twcl97c.htm#parliment


-- 
Tom Worthington, MEd FHEA FACS CP IP3P http://www.tomw.net.au 
+61(0)419496150
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Honorary Lecturer, Computer Science, Australian National University 
https://cecs.anu.edu.au/research/profile/tom-worthington