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

[Tom Worthington]

On 25/8/20 10:45 am, David Lochrin wrote:

> The theatre of Parliament is one place where our Representatives are
>  publicly held to account. ...

The theater of parliament is largely rehearsed and scripted. Like any
performance the spontaneity is largely an illusion.

> ... less accountable than it is now by creating a sense of remoteness
> ...

Only a tiny fraction of the Australian population ever experience
parliament face to face, and then only from the remoteness of the public
gallery. It is possible to use online tools and techniques to make the
experience "better than life".

> The nature of the technology would reduce the impact of the stirring
> policy speech to that of an SMS text.

Great speeches are great in written form. I expect Lincoln and Churchill
would have done well online.

> And where do you draw the line?  Would Senate Estimates be held using
> Zoom?

Yes, Senate inquires are already help via Zoom. They have been videoed 
for years and transmitted around the internal Parliament system (I have 
appeared in front of a few).

> I want to see incompetent ministers and public officials squirming in
> their chair under close questioning.

With ultra high definition video you will be able to see every bead of
sweat, better than sitting in the public part of the audience. ;-)

> The incident where Scott Morrison produced a lump of coal ...

I do wonder when the Speaker will get onto the idea that they could
insert an artificial background of the chamber behind each member on
video. That way members could not use props. This effect is noticeable 
when someone with a virtual background on Zoom picks up an object: the 
software cuts out the object and inserts the background.


-- 
Tom Worthington, MEd FHEA FACS CP IP3P http://www.tomw.net.au
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Honorary Lecturer, Computer Science, Australian National University
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