The work of a Member of Parliament
House of
Representatives Infosheet No. 15 Revised 15 October 1998 Page menu
: Tasks and skills—What does a Member of Parliament do?
| Working hours | Information and communication
| Parliamentary committees | Political Parties
| Constituents and the MP | This Infosheet looks at the
role of the private or backbench Member of the House of Representatives, not of
Ministers or opposition shadow ministers. The ministerial role is a distinct and
different one, focused largely on the work of Cabinet and its committees and a
particular department of state and is supported by considerable resources.
The backbench Member is a jack-of-all-trades, developing his or her own role in
the Parliament and the electorate. Ministers and shadow ministers have electorates
and constituents too and they perform these functions as well as their ministerial
duties or shadow responsibilities. Tasks and skills—What does a Member
of Parliament do? There is no 'job description' which
sets out the work of a backbencher and no specific daily routine is required,
but it is possible to identify some common tasks and goals which all backbenchers
share. A Member is expected to be a spokesperson for his or her local interests,
an ombudsman who deals with complaints about government matters, a law maker,
an examiner of the work of the government and how it spends the money it raises
from taxpayers, and a contributor to debates on national issues. In order to carry
out all these functions and others a Member needs to have a wide range of abilities
and talents. Because there are so many demands on Members' time and they are
presented with such a wide variety of tasks, Members determine their own job descriptions
simply by deciding which they think are the most important and choosing which
to do first or spend the most time on. Whatever set of tasks MPs find themselves
doing, it requires a range of skills and problem-solving techniques. 
Working hours Members work long hours in the
House, on parliamentary committee work and in their electorates attending to the
demands and problems of their constituents. They attend a constant round of engagements
to which they are invited because of their position in the community as parliamentarians.
The ear of the parliamentarian is constantly sought at these functions. Attendance
is necessary to keep in touch with community developments and attitudes. When
the House is sitting it meets for between 7 and 10 hours a day and sometimes
even longer. Although a Member will not sit in the Chamber all the time, he or
she will keep in touch with proceedings via a television service provided to each
Member's office and be ready to attend in the House at any time to vote in a division,
to make a speech or to lend support to a colleague. In addition a Member may spend
several hours each day attending meetings of the Main Committee, parliamentary
committees, party committees and other groups. When a Member is not in the House
or attending a formal meeting he or she deals with the wide variety of tasks which
face a Member when in Canberra, including preparing speeches, doing research,
meeting constituents, raising matters of concern with Ministers or liaising with
colleagues, public servants, lobbyists or foreign diplomats.
Information and communication One of a Member's
most important skills is communicating—receiving, understanding and evaluating
information from many sources, and passing on information and opinions in Parliament
and elsewhere—to the Government and to individuals and groups. Being
well informed and up to date is vital if an MP is to come to grips with the great
range of legislation and other issues dealt with by the House and provide an effective
link between the public and the Parliament. Backbenchers spend a great deal
of time reading, although no backbencher can expect to read all the material sent
to Members at Parliament House. Major national and regional, and sometimes overseas,
newspapers and journals are priority reading in order to keep up with day to day
news and views. In addition hundreds of reports are presented to the House each
year and an MP with an interest in just a few major policy areas may read hundreds
of pages of reports annually, just to keep in touch with developments. The MP
may also read articles and listen to television and radio programs in his or her
area of interest. He or she may ask for detailed research on specific topics to
be done by personal or parliamentary staff. Parliamentary or party committee work
requires more reading and research in relatively specialised areas. Another
major parliamentary occupation is talking. Making speeches in the Chamber is the
role with which the general observer is most familiar and which probably attracts
the most publicity, although in fact other tasks such as office work or committee
work may take much more time. Nevertheless most Members are regularly called upon
to speak in the Chamber of the House and in the Main Committee, usually in support
of, or opposition to, a piece of legislation. There are a number of other opportunities
for Members to raise issues of particular interest to them or their constituents
especially during the daily adjournment debates and the weekly private Members'
business debates. (For further information about opportunities for Members to
raise matters of concern see Infosheet No. 6 — Opportunities
for Private Members.) The MP also spends time each day talking with
colleagues and MPs from other parties, and exchanging views with journalists and
others. The other important aspect of communication for the MP is keeping constituents
informed of developments in government or party policy and the implications of
government decisions and activity. Members must write many letters and talk to
many people both privately and in public forums.
Parliamentary committees The House of Representatives
has set up a system of committees to perform functions the House itself cannot
do well, such as carrying out investigations, hearing witnesses, sifting evidence,
discussing matters in detail and making reasoned conclusions. The committees set
up by the House (including some set up jointly with the Senate which also has
its own committees) investigate matters of public policy and make recommendations
for change and examine the activities of government. Parliamentary committees
consist of Members of all parties and (in some cases) independent Members.
Committee work is an important part of the duties of a Member of Parliament and
generally makes considerable demands on a Member's time. Committee meetings are
held during both sitting and non-sitting periods, and in many instances, committees
may hold their hearings, public meetings or informal discussions in a number of
places throughout the country. Many backbenchers are members of more than one
parliamentary committee. Committees are given wide powers of investigation.
They are valuable vehicles for getting and giving out information and supplement
the normal parliamentary role of a private Member considerably. They also provide
a direct link between Members and the many sources of information and opinion
across the Australian community. In order to make a contribution to the work of
a committee, a Member must spend time studying the subject matter of the inquiry.
(For further information on House of Representatives committees see Infosheet
No. 4 — Committees.)
Political Parties Nearly all Members belong to
a political party (only one of the 148 Members of the House in the 39th Parliament
is not a member of a political party). They are expected to contribute to the
development and amendment of the policies of the party to which they belong. Each
party has its own ways of doing this but in all parties Members are given opportunities
to put forward the interests of their constituents and their own personal views.
All parties hold meetings of their parliamentary members, usually weekly when
the Parliament is sitting, at which proposals are put before them and attitudes
are decided. Both the Liberal-National Party coalition and the Australian
Labor Party make extensive use of backbench party committees, each committee specialising
in a particular area of government. These committees look at legislative proposals
and government policy, and may help to develop party policy. Party committees
command a considerable amount of the time of MPs. They meet mostly on parliamentary
sitting days, generally during meal breaks, in the morning, or at night. During
sittings periods these committees meet, typically, at least once a week and a
Member may be on more than one committee. While parliamentary committees work
towards the production of individual reports with recommendations which the Government
may or may not adopt, party committees have a continuing role in commenting on
and adapting party policies.
Constituents and the MP The federal electoral
divisions in Australia have an average population of about 120,000 people (around
81,000 eligible voters in each) and range in area from 26 square kilometres to
2.2 million square kilometres. Members provide a direct link between their constituents
and the Parliament. Each Member maintains an electorate office which serves
as his or her electorate base. Members and their staff spend much energy on solving
the problems of constituents. Sometimes these require the personal intervention
of the MP who may write to a Minister, phone a public servant, or call into a
Minister's office to enlist his or her personal involvement in settling the matter.
Many of the complaints or calls for assistance fall within the areas of social
welfare, immigration and taxation. A Member also deals with problems concerning
family law, postal and telephone services, employment, housing, health and education—even
assisting with the task of filling in forms. Many Commonwealth and State functions
overlap and when this occurs cross referrals of problems are made between federal
and State Members, regardless of political affiliations. A Member has an important
influence and standing outside Parliament and typically has a wide range of contacts
with government bodies, political parties, community groups and individuals. Personal
intervention in a constituent's problem by a Member traditionally gets priority
attention by government departments. If the problem is purely an administrative
one, the Member may contact the department or authority concerned, where the case
will be dealt with by the relevant section. If the problem is urgent, the Member
may approach the Minister direct or, if the Member feels the case requires public
discussion or a change of policy, he or she may bring the matter before the House,
for instance, by addressing a question to the responsible Minister or by raising
it in debate. A Member may also make representations to the Government on
behalf of his electorate as a whole on matters of special interest to the electorate.
The building of an airport or other major project within the electorate, or the
prospect of closure of a local industry which would cause unemployment or other
problems for the area, are examples of electorate issues that can be very important.
Such matters are more likely to be the subject of questions on notice or to be
raised in the House than are problems of individual constituents. A Member's representation
of community views on national issues is also important in shaping policy.
Backbenchers frequently meet constituents who are visiting Parliament House. Some
constituents seek out the politician to lobby him or her on a particular problem.
Mostly however, the constituents are simply visitors to the national capital who
want the chance to meet their MP. Members also find time to meet groups of school
children from their electorates and conduct them around the Parliament. Parliament
House has a room set aside for visiting school groups to meet their MPs, receive
refreshments and learn about Parliament. It is constituents who Members of
Parliament must satisfy as to their fitness for the task of being their parliamentary
representative and who pass judgment on their performance at each election.
Last updated: 15 October 1998
| 
