Federal Parliament on track to become most disorderly in history as Speaker Bronwyn Bishop nears 200th sin-binning

Updated

The nation's Parliament is on the way to becoming the most disorderly in history, almost a year after the federal election.

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop has booted out MPs on nearly 200 occasions - almost all of them Labor.

The Opposition and the Government blame each other for the figures, but a respected former speaker says it is partly a trend of politicians behaving badly.

On Tuesday, Labor's Member for Wakefield, Nick Champion, was sin-binned for an hour for the 25th time since the election.

"You know, this is a Government that breaks its commitments to the Australian people and so, you know, when I'm in the chamber I let them know it," he said.

Both sides of politics are guilty of yelling insults across the chamber, but in this 44th Parliament, Opposition MPs have been disciplined 193 times and Government MPs just four.

Many Labor MPs think the Speaker is biased and very unfair.

"Well look, I'm not going to reflect on the Speaker. What I would reflect on is a chaotic government," Mr Champion said.

The previous minority Parliament has the tag of most disorderly. In the entire term, 278 sanctions were issued.

Scoreboard for 44th Parliament Opposition: 193

Government: 4

This Parliament is on track to break that record before the Abbott Government's second budget.

Unsurprisingly, first-term Coalition backbenchers like Michelle Landry blame Labor for the figures.

"I think the Opposition need to behave themselves a bit more in the chamber," she said.

West Australian Liberal MP Ken Wyatt agreed.

"Even when we were in Opposition, people who perpetually got in the habit of calling out loudly across answers that they asked for, then you pay the penalty," he said.

According to the Parliamentary library, Opposition MPs usually make up about 90 per cent of the politicians disciplined no matter who is in power.

Sport of Question Time partly to blame, Jenkins says

Most evictions take place in Question Time, MPs are more likely to be disciplined at the end of a week than the start, and since the one-hour sin bin was introduced in 1994, there appears to be an increase in its use.

"In part it's because I don't think that people now see it as much of a punishment," said former Labor speaker Harry Jenkins.

[In Question Time] the players on the field decide they're going to arc up ... they think there is some advantage in presenting the Parliament the way it does. Harry Jenkins, former Labor speaker

Mr Jenkins holds the record for issuing the most sanctions - 265 in all.

He was back in Canberra watching proceedings this week and partly blamed the theatre, or sport, of Question Time and the media's focus on it for the increasing numbers of MPs being sin-binned.

"I regret that Question Time is seen as perhaps the most important part of the day for people that are viewing the Parliament from the outside," he said.

"I think that then those that are the players on the field decide that they're going to arc up because they think there is some advantage in presenting the Parliament in the way it does during Question Time."

Mr Jenkins said he did not miss the parliamentary battlefield.

"It was a very short visit and I was happy to be out the door as soon as I could."

But he said taxpayers should consider all the other work MPs did before forming a view about the Parliament.

Topics: federal-parliament, parliament, political-parties, australia

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