7. Opposition Agendas

This chapter examines the parliamentary opposition’s agenda, using question time as the measure. The opposition agenda tends to follow spikes in legislative attention, demonstrating the opposition’s difficulty in seizing the agenda. One obvious trend in the twenty-first century is growing opposition time on defence and international affairs. The opposition concentrates on crisis issues, with most codes disconnected from legislative trends. The economy becomes prominent at times, but the opposition agenda is opportunistic; immigration and environment are easy to criticize but hard to legislate on. The opposition tends to chase issues that later cause it problems when in power. Greater divisiveness emerges in recent years, with wedge issues being exploited by oppositions seeking electoral advantage, meaning some important legislative issues barely appear on the opposition agenda.