Australian politics The politics of Australia take place within the framework of a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system under its Constitution, one of the world's oldest, since F ...

, a Dorothy Dixer is a rehearsed or planted question asked of a government Minister by a

backbencher In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...

of their own

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

during

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

ary

Question Time A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...

. The term can be used in a mildly derogatory sense, but in common usage today is simply pre-arranged questions from a friendly audience member. Often, the question has been written by the Minister or their staff rather than by the questioner, and is used to give the Minister a chance to promote themselves or the work of the Government, or to criticise the opposition party's policies, to raise the profile of the backbench Member asking the question, or to consume the time available for questioning and thereby avoid tougher questions. It is a common and widely accepted tactic during Question Time in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

and the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. While it is rare, it would be possible for a backbencher on the Government side of the house to ask a member of the Government a question without it being regarded as a Dorothy Dixer. Such a question would be one that the Minister had not planted and was not aware of in advance. It is common for "Dorothy Dixers" to end in the question: "Is the Minister aware of any alternative policies?" This enables the responding Minister to launch into extended criticism of the

Opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * ''The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comed ...

and their policy on the question's subject matter, which may include a pre-planned speech intended as a

character assassination "Character Assassination" is a four-issue Spider-Man story arc written by Marc Guggenheim with art by John Romita, Jr. and published by Marvel Comics. The arc appears in ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #584-#588. An interlude, "The Spartacus Gambit" ...

of an opposition member, while still remaining technically relevant to the question as asked as Standing orders require. These questions or the answers to them are often based upon, refer to, or build upon, party line propaganda written earlier in the day by ideologically friendly members of the news media.

History

The term references American advice columnist

Dorothy Dix Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (November 18, 1861 – December 16, 1951), widely known by the pen name Dorothy Dix, was an American journalist and columnist. As the forerunner of today's popular advice columnists, Dix was America's highest paid ...

's reputed practice of making up her own questions to allow her to publish more interesting answers. "Dorothy Dixer" has been used in Australian politics since the 1950s, and has become increasingly common in everyday usage, although the term is now frequently shortened to "Dixer". However, the term is virtually unknown in other countries where Dix's column was equally popular. In 2015, the

Parliament of Victoria The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly and ...

abolished Dorothy Dixers, replacing them instead with ministers' statements, where ministers are granted up to two minutes during question time to advise parliament on new government initiatives, projects and achievements.

Usage

In his book ''An Introduction to Australian Politics'',

Dean Jaensch Dean Harold Jaensch (27 October 1936 – 17 January 2022) was an Australian political scientist and a Professor of Political and International Studies at The Flinders University of South Australia. Jaensch was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Hon ...

observes: Similarly, Don Aitkin and Brian Jinks observe in their book ''Australian Political Institutions'':

References

{{Politics of Australia, state=autocollapse Political terminology in Australia