Australian MPs are worse behaved than British ones, according to a new analysis.
Professor Philip Cowley, of the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London, examined conflict at Prime Minister’s Questions in the UK and how it compared to other parliaments.
He highlighted research into parliamentary systems, all of which have plenary sessions in which the PM can be directly questioned, in Britain, Australia, Canada, and Ireland.
“These have varying procedures and practices, which produce different types of behaviour, but it is striking that whichever measure of conflict is analysed the UK does not come out as the worst,” Prof Cowley wrote in the House Magazine.
“Take, for example, the extent to which the Speaker has to intervene: to call for order, challenge the nature of questions, or expel members.
“Out of the four parliaments studied, the Australian one comes out the worst behaved – with an average of 12.8 interventions by the Speaker in every session of questions.
“Australians play politics rough is perhaps not a novel research discovery, but some of the figures are still remarkable; these interventions included 39 ordering people from the chamber.
“The other three parliaments totalled zero expulsions. Overall, Ireland came a distant second (3.2 interventions per session), the UK third (2.5),” he added on the research which covered set periods.
The research highlighted by Prof Cowley included work on conflict in different parliaments by Dr Ruxandra Serban, associate lecturer in democratic and authoritarian politics at UCL's Department of Political Science.
PMQs, which started as a regular fixed slot in the parliamentary schedule in 1961, has seen its timings and frequency change over the years.
It has been criticised for being too confrontational, excessively theatrical and for being “Punch and Judy” politics rather than a more cerebral discussion of policy.
However, Professor Cowley added: “Yet the evidence that it is harmful to the standing of Parliament – as frequently claimed – is remarkably slim.
“There is even research showing that parliaments with these sort of adversarial exchanges have higher levels of engagement than others; maybe it’s Punch and Judy politics, but people did at least want to watch Punch and Judy – better that than to be dull.”
Analysis had found that in the Canadian parliament, nearly eight out of ten questions were “conflictual in nature”, compared to close to four in ten in Britain and Australia.
Prof Cowley added: “Ah, you may say, but I bet in those countries parliamentarians focused their attacks on policy rather than the trivia that dominates PMQs.
“I bring bad news. In all four cases, the vast majority of conflictual questions focused on personalities and parties, not policy.”
