How long does question time go for

Question Time is limited to 45 minutes or ten answers, whichever takes longer. The Leader of the Opposition is entitled to ask the first question - Standing Order Any Member may then seek the call, but traditionally questions alternate between Government and Opposition Members.

Crossbench Members are allocated a number of questions each week proportionate to their numbers as part of the non-Government allocation. There are rules about the content of questions and to whom questions may be directed - see Chapter 10, Standing Orders to Answers are limited to five minutes, although the Member who asked the original question may seek additional information limited to two minutes , and one Member may ask a supplementary question during each Question Time which counts toward the total of ten answers.

After Question Time has concluded there are a number of items of business that are completed. The Speaker asks if Ministers have papers to be tabled. By the time she left the chair, Bishop had removed MPs from the chamber — all but seven of them from Labor. Then Labor leader Mark Latham also vowed to clean up question time, declaring in he would kill off Dorothy dixers.

The death to dixers movement has a strong following, but will probably never be successful, no matter how ridiculous the questions become. He took a deep breath before he delivered it. Even he knew it was terrible. It came to prominence during the Turnbull years — every single dixer ended with the joyless inquiry for a few weeks there, before dropping off to every second — and has just never gone away.

The very words elicit groans in the chamber, and not just from the opposition benches. No matter how noble the intentions of the MPs who worked to see how question time could be improved , dixers are not going anywhere. Inter-parliamentary relations. Find your members. Roles and responsibilities. Members of the Assembly.

The Speaker and office holders. Ethics and accountability. Get involved. Contact a member. Start or sign a Petition. Participate in public inquiries. Work for us. Opposition Members will be tempted in their questioning to stress those matters which will embarrass the Government, while government Members will be tempted to provide Ministers with an opportunity to put government policies and actions in a favourable light or to embarrass the Opposition. However, apart from the use of Question Time for its political impact, the opportunity given to Members to raise topical or urgent issues is invaluable.

Ministers accept the fact that they must be informed through a check of press, television or other sources, of possible questions that may be asked of them in order that they may provide satisfactory answers. During the first sitting days of the first Parliament the Speaker made the following statement in reply to a query from the Leader of the Opposition as to whether a practice of asking questions without notice should be created:.

The practice of Members asking questions without notice developed in a rather ad hoc manner. It was not until that the standing orders specifically permitted questions without notice or included them in the order of business, despite their long de facto status.

It was not until [5] that a reference to questions without notice was made in the Votes and Proceedings. This long term absence from the official record of proceedings is perhaps indicative of the somewhat unofficial nature of Question Time, its features having always been heavily influenced by practice and convention.

From the outset it was held that Ministers could not be compelled to answer questions without notice. These qualifying words were omitted in , the Standing Orders Committee having stated:. Although it remains the case that Ministers are not compelled to answer questions without notice, the political attention now given to the period would mean that a refusal by Ministers to answer questions would likely attract an adverse reaction and see similar comments at page relating to the reaction to restrictions on the occurrence or duration of Question Time.

The proportion of the time of the House spent on Question Time and the number of questions dealt with varied considerably.