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Parliament is a battlefield: Bishop

June 9, 2015 1:37 am

The Australian Speaker of the House Bronwyn Bishop says Parliament is a battlefield.

Bishop is in Fiji for the Fiji Parliamentarians Forum on Key Development Issues, currently being held at the Warwick Resort and Spa in Sigatoka.

Bishop says parliament is a significant place to ask questions and debate to allow for the free flow of information.

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Since the start of the Fiji parliament, parliamentarians have been criticized for the way they behave and conduct themselves during the sittings.

Bishop says that is what happens in a Parliament.

’’People say we get rowdy when people get up and down and interjecting and they say, “Oh! It sounds like a classroom.” Well, it’s not! We are not a polite debating society. We are not a classroom. We are in fact a battlefield. Where we test out ideas and we have given up guns, swords and physics and we fight with words.”

The four day workshop is attended by 24 out of the 49 members of Parliament.