Skip the stage shows: Canberra's most chaotic performance plays daily at 2pm

Some of Australia's best theatre is free to watch at Parliament House.

The PM arrives for Question Time. Picture by Keegan Carroll

By Mark Dapin

Updated March 27, 2026, first published March 22, 2026

For the very best in Australian improv theatre, tourists should visit Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Question Time generally begins at 2pm, and spectators are asked to arrive at least half an hour before.

I booked my free ticket a day in advance, and joined a far shorter queue than the line of visitors who had just turned up that afternoon. But there are 528 seats in the three visitors' galleries and sightseers are unlikely to be turned away.

I took my seat in the central gallery overlooking an almost empty House of Representatives, as Opposition MP Angie Bell unwillingly wound up her contribution to a debate on a bill. "Shame on you!" she cried, before folding her arms crossly and plummeting to her seat.

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Magnificent.

After a division on the bill, the members assembled for Question Time. From my vantage point, I could see which politicians had bald spots. I learned that Tanya Plibersek wears running shoes with her pants suit, and Chris Bowen's hair looks like a hat.

Throughout the questions, Speaker Milton Dick affected a resigned air of permanently strained patience, like a teacher in a bush school trying to keep order in a classroom filled with his own children.

In the first hour, two members were ejected. As they left the chamber, each of them shook a fist in the air. If I were Speaker, I would have made them stand in a corner.

"Question Time" seems to be a bit of a misnomer. Most of the Opposition's "questions" weren't really questions, and most of the Government's "answers" weren't answers, either.

Aside from the Dorothy Dixers, almost every exchange could be condensed to something like ...

Opposition: "Why have you ruined everything? Is it because you're useless?"

Government: "We didn't ruin anything. You left behind a terrible mess and now we've got to clean it up, because you're useless."

Opposition bench (en masse): "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, what you say is what you are!"

Speaker: "Grow up, for heaven's sake! Why can't you all just grow up?"

My favourite moment came while the Prime Minister spoke about how a social media ban for under-16s would enable young people to get off their phones and on with their lives. At least three members of the Opposition spent the entire length of his statement scrolling through their phones.

Sitting with me in the gallery were tourists from France, Indonesia and India, as well as a delegation of young people from the US, and several blazered members of the Australian Winter Olympic and Paralympic teams.

I think they would all have come away with the comforting feeling that while our elected representatives may not be particularly mature, at least they are not deluded egomaniacs inhabiting a bizarre alternative universe where a blunt instrument is the sharpest tool in the box.

But then, I left just before Bob Katter stood up to speak.

For more information, and the calendar of sitting days at the House of Representatives and the Senate, see aph.gov.au