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Tips on surviving Question Time
One of Parliament's best exponents of the skills of gladiatorial quizzes offers advice on "surviving Question Time".
Recently on The House we focused on a crucial ministerial skill: answering questions in Parliament's debating chamber. It has nothing to do with actually managing a policy area, but everything to do with not looking like you're failing.
For an example we looked at the successful gear shift adopted last week by the new Minister for Police, Chris Hipkins. As a follow-up I asked our ministerial example for some Question Time advice.
Some quick tips for surviving Question Time
"There is a certain art to Question Time that not everybody gets their head around," says Chris Hipkins.
If you watch Question Time at the beginning of each sitting day in Parliament's House of Reps you will likely agree. Both ministers and opposition MPs display a wide range of skill in something that obviously not easy.
Because doing it badly can be career-affecting (especially in government), you can imagine MPs don't lack in effort. And yet, you might only identify a handful on either side of the House that really show what jazz musicians call 'chops'.
So, what quick tips does Chris Hipkins on the skills and approaches, especially (but not entirely) for those on the answering side of the contest.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
"I remember when I worked for Helen Clark and she was at the peak of her prowess as Prime Minister she would still spend an hour to an hour and a half every day preparing for Question Time in the House."
"I always have between 1 and 2pm set-aside on House sitting days for house-related activity. Now if I don't get any questions and I don't have any other things I have to do in the House, then I get a lunch break, but if I do then I'll eat my lunch while we're doing our question preparation. And that means going through all of the background materials, making sure that you've got all of the most recent up an up-to-date information, trying to anticipate what the questions might be so that you can be prepared for those."
Stay nimble: don't rely on the prep
"There's a need to be very quick-thinking when you're on your feet."
"You have to be prepared for the fact that you might get a question completely out of left field that you weren't anticipating."
"You also have to be able to think on your feet. Sometimes, if you get a question that you weren't anticipating, it'll actually throw up another whole line of questioning that you might not have even thought about before; so you have to be able to go with that."
https://youtu.be/mkOK3aXzMpc?t=205…
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
View all episodes
By RNZOne of Parliament's best exponents of the skills of gladiatorial quizzes offers advice on "surviving Question Time".
Recently on The House we focused on a crucial ministerial skill: answering questions in Parliament's debating chamber. It has nothing to do with actually managing a policy area, but everything to do with not looking like you're failing.
For an example we looked at the successful gear shift adopted last week by the new Minister for Police, Chris Hipkins. As a follow-up I asked our ministerial example for some Question Time advice.
Some quick tips for surviving Question Time
"There is a certain art to Question Time that not everybody gets their head around," says Chris Hipkins.
If you watch Question Time at the beginning of each sitting day in Parliament's House of Reps you will likely agree. Both ministers and opposition MPs display a wide range of skill in something that obviously not easy.
Because doing it badly can be career-affecting (especially in government), you can imagine MPs don't lack in effort. And yet, you might only identify a handful on either side of the House that really show what jazz musicians call 'chops'.
So, what quick tips does Chris Hipkins on the skills and approaches, especially (but not entirely) for those on the answering side of the contest.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
"I remember when I worked for Helen Clark and she was at the peak of her prowess as Prime Minister she would still spend an hour to an hour and a half every day preparing for Question Time in the House."
"I always have between 1 and 2pm set-aside on House sitting days for house-related activity. Now if I don't get any questions and I don't have any other things I have to do in the House, then I get a lunch break, but if I do then I'll eat my lunch while we're doing our question preparation. And that means going through all of the background materials, making sure that you've got all of the most recent up an up-to-date information, trying to anticipate what the questions might be so that you can be prepared for those."
Stay nimble: don't rely on the prep
"There's a need to be very quick-thinking when you're on your feet."
"You have to be prepared for the fact that you might get a question completely out of left field that you weren't anticipating."
"You also have to be able to think on your feet. Sometimes, if you get a question that you weren't anticipating, it'll actually throw up another whole line of questioning that you might not have even thought about before; so you have to be able to go with that."
https://youtu.be/mkOK3aXzMpc?t=205…
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details