14 Jan 07: With Sam and Ngoc by the Lake (Lake Burley Griffin). This lake pretty sits smack in the middle of Canberra, and its really nice! Named after the architect of Canberra (it's a planned city remember?) - Walter Burley Griffin. Canberra has such nice cycling tracks... that snakes around for kilometres on end. Very much like an F1 racing track! Thanks to Ngoc who lent us bikes from her department at Population Health and Epidemiology. Yeah some departments at ANU lend out bikes for their visiting scholars.. how cool is that. heehe.
21 Jan 07: With Debbie at the National Museum. Really funky museum they have here in Canberra. Showcases a lot of Aboriginal History and stuff that is close to Australia, e.g. sports, Holden, Vegemite, animals, Federation etc.
In front of Old Parliament House. This was where Parliament sat from like 1927 to 1988. No longer used, but you can still go in there and stand where Menzies used to stand.
And if you look closer at this photo, the Australian War Memorial is right at the end of it - Sam and I visited the AWM last month. Anyway, the AWM, the Old Parliament House, and the current Parliament House are like in a perfectly straight line!
In front of the current Parliament House! See the flag pole at the top? My Lonely Planet book says the flag is as tall as a double-decker bus. You can also see one of the only 4 known original copies of the Magna Carta (c. 1215) at Parliament House. It is one of those important early documents that sets down the idea of constitutional law, and was a big influence in the drafting of other documents like the American Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
In the Senate itself.. of course, you can't go all the way down to where the Senators sit. I'm at the viewing gallery - quite surprised there are no glass walls in between - i.e. you can probably shout all sorts of nonsense when the Senate is in session, although I have no doubts you'll probably be evicted by police or something haha.
I'll not go into a long story of what the Senate does. Suffice it to note there are 76 members (equal representation for each state = NSW, VIC, TAS, QLD, WA, SA and 2 from each territory = ACT and NT. They are voted in by a Proportional Representation system (Single-Transferable Vote) for 6 years, although half of the Senate is up for election every 3 years.
Ok ok too much detail! Must be very boring to lots of people. heehe.
The Senate without me.
And where the most exciting action happens - the House of Representatives! The Speaker, David Hawker sits on the elevated chair in the middle. On the table in front of the Speaker, John Howard sits on the right side (from the Speaker's view), and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd sits on the left. So yeah, the Liberals sit on the seats behind the PM and the Labor Party behind Rudd. The Cabinet and the Shadow Ministry (ALP) sits on the front-row bench at their respective sides.
I love Question Time at 2pm when Parliament is sitting, cos its televised live across the country. And lots of actions to see! Heehe.
And me at the House of Reps. I must visit Parliament House again before I leave Canberra.
11 days before I leave Canberra. :(