Hon Deputy Speaker, I believe that the Parliament Budget Vote is an opportunity for us to go beyond the numbers and make an honest assessment of what role this institution should be playing in our maturing democracy. We are, clearly, a country with huge unresolved issues, as the events of the past few weeks have visibly demonstrated.
We are also a nation that does not shy away from robust debate. We can all take pride in the fact that we were able to use dialogue to resolve seemingly intractable divisions and usher in our era of multiparty democracy. It is this spirit that should inform our work here in Parliament. We all have a responsibility to live up to this ideal.
In order to do this, though, Parliament needs to position itself at the pinnacle of our country's difficult debates. Unfortunately, many of our debates are sterile, both in their relevance and in their content. We need more snap debates in this House that are responsive to the burning issues of our time. We also need to be showing leadership in these debates, and to avoid them descending into lowest-common denominator politics, which simply intensify our country's divisions.
It is often said that politics is the art of the possible. Unfortunately, I often feel that Parliament is the art of making the possible impossible. Good legislative ideas from Members of Parliament are simply killed off in the private legislative committee, often on the most spurious grounds.
There also seems to be a fundamental inertia in this institution, where decisions are bounced between the Chief Whips' Forum, subcommittees, task teams and the parliamentary oversight committee. It is a bewildering experience and it saps the idealism of those parliamentarians who are desperately trying to drive through progressive changes.
Why is it, for instance, that we are still handing out bottled water with Parliament's label on it? This is not the kind of leadership we should be showing, where we think that putting up huge banners declaring the greening of Parliament is the same as actually doing it.
We need to win back the public's respect for Parliament, but we can only do that if we show a true willingness to discipline our own. Unfortunately, the numerous scandals that have beset this institution and our soft approach in dealing with them do not inspire confidence.
We also need to ensure that we eliminate wastage in this institution and live the values that we want our broader society to adopt. If we can do these things, then we can finally give validity to the term "hon Member of Parliament". I thank you. [Applause.]