AUSTRALIA | Sunday, 13 March 2011 | Views [423]
In the Australian House, the Prime Minister and her Deputy sit at the left side of the big desk in the rolly chairs, directly across from the Opposition leader and his deputy (the opposition right now is the Liberal/National coalition, the deputy is thus the National Party leader). Thus the leaders don't sit on the front benches but at the actual table. Copies of Hansard line the table in the middle, and the brackets for the mace are at the bottom end. The smaller desk below is for the official recordist of Parliament, who in fact does not type every word anymore but monitors the voice recognition system, and every 12 minutes switches out with someone to double-check and publish the official record of every word uttered (insults included).
