Senator Andrew Bartlett
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
 
Lock ups, conveyor belts and post budget parties
As I wrote yesterday, the activity in Parliament House on Budget Day is a unique experience. Heaps of people descend on Parliament House – public servants, lobbyists, analysts, political junkies, journalists – and there is a strong sense of anticipation amongst many of them. Whilst most of the nation has already got bored with the endless speculation, for most of these people the climax is still to be had.

Many of these people are destined for what is known as the 'Budget Lock-up'. As its name suggests, this basically means you get locked up in a room sometime after 12 noon with copies of all the Budget documents, and you aren't allowed out until 7.30pm when the Treasurer formally releases the documents in the Parliament. For other political parties, this means getting locked up in rooms on your own, with computers but no mobile phones or internet connection and some guards to check you don't get messages out (and to accompany you to the toilet if need be).

Whilst the parties basically get a set number of people who are just given the documents and left to it, media and some lobbyists and advocates get presentations and explanations from Treasury bureaucrats and from the Treasurer himself. All of this is done in advance of the Budget's formal release so that the mainstream media can have all their stories ready to go for the late night news bulletins and morning papers.

So the media get hours to read the comments and get words from the Treasurer. After the Treasurer has done his speech to the House of Representatives, Parliament adjourns and the mad scramble to get responses out begins. Everyone who has been in a lock-up has a media statement ready to go.

The Parliamentary Press Gallery is on the top floor of the Senate Wing of Parliament House. It is basically one long corridor with a few alleys off the side. Right in the middle of it is an area called 'the boxes', which is a row of large pigeonholes for all the various media organisations where people leave their media releases.

On Budget night, rather than people calling a lot of separate press conferences, what tends to happen is that people wanting to comment line up, all the media gather in the one spot and then people churn along like a production line conveyor belt – each person stopping and giving a few comments, much like food in a prison canteen being slopped out, plate after plate. The journalists ask a question or two of the person, and then the next one steps up to the plate.

This is all done to provide reactions from the usual range of opposition politicians, lobbyists and advocacy groups to fill out all the pieces that have already basically been written detailing the content and assessment of the Budget. On top of this, the Treasurer and senior Opposition spokespeople go from one studio to another around the Press Gallery to do a range of TV and radio interviews.

Around the same time as this cattle call is happening in the Press Gallery, the post-Budget parties start. It may seem incongruous to people in the outside world, but for many caught in the Parliamentary cocoon, it is a bit like the end of a Grand Final and people go off to celebrate and just let it all hang out after the burst of frenzy leading up to the unveiling. Some of these parties happen in Parliament House and others happen in various parts of nearby suburbs. There are also a range of formal dinners around town, particularly aimed at the business community and corporate clients. These can be just as much of a drink fest as the gatherings at the pubs and clubs, albeit in a more genteel environment.

I went to the Holy Grail in Kingston, which is a busy hang-out for staffers, bureaucrats, journos and MPs at this time. There was also a stack of Young Liberals there who come into town for the occasion. This seems to be a regular thing, as I have seen groups such as this in previous years. They were drinking heaps and having fun being Liberals under a Liberal Government. It was jam-packed around midnight and still had a sizeable crowd around 2am. Whilst it is easy to portray this as just a hedonistic piss-up, it is also quite a useful networking experience, and I met with a few different people I hadn't met for a while and got their take on the Budget and the political dynamic at the moment.

Despite this sense of release and relief that accompanies the partying, the next day is just as important as the day before, trying to get the messages and perceptions about the Budget entrenched in the core political debate.Whichever core aspects of the Budget people want to focus on, the big difference between this Budget and the last 24 is that it will be presented to a lapdog Senate which is poised to rubber-stamp it all, regardless of any flaws. We will have our work cut out generating sufficient political pressure around any particularly problematic areas to get the necessary changes to happen, but that is our task, so we'll keep at it.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Wednesday, May 11, 2005 Permalink
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