Dorothy Dixers, Big Macs and Leroy Brown: The things MPs say in parliament

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In his 461st contribution to the 58th NSW Parliament, first-term Liberal MP Jordan Lane singled out 18 constituents for their outstanding contribution to the inaugural Easter Pets and Teddies Photo Competition.

“One such entry came from Clara Chung, who submitted a delightful photo of her cat, Mr Leroy Brown, proudly donning a pair of bunny ears,” the Ryde MP wrote in a community recognition statement on May 13.

Every year, the 135 members of parliament bundle into Macquarie Street from all corners of the state. Across 16 weeks, MPs spend their time debating bills, making speeches, moving motions, asking questions – sometimes until dawn the next day.

The Herald has analysed every contribution made in parliament since the 2023 state election, until the end of August, unveiling how each government, opposition and crossbench politician spent their time in the 201-year-old legislature.

The findings reveal a vast discrepancy, both within and across party lines.

For example, the Liberal Party’s two biggest contributors in the lower house, Lane and the member for Willoughby, Tim James, both made 520-odd contributions. This was slightly under ministers Jenny Aitchison and Jihad Dib, Labor’s top contributors.

Given that lower house MPs face elections every four years, a considerable proportion of their time is spent trying to win over their electorates.

Parliament offers many ways to foster goodwill. MPs can acknowledge community members through a CRS: sporting triumphs, significant milestones and Rotary Club visits are added to Hansard each sitting day. There is a limit of one spoken in parliament, three written.

In November last year, James “proudly” told the parliament he “may have delivered two of the greatest Big Macs ever made at McDonald’s” on his second consecutive CRS on McHappy Day.

These community mentions appear trivial but some were received incredibly well by those named, sources said. And, done often enough, an MP can ingratiate themselves with swaths of their electorate.

Labor and Coalition sources, speaking anonymously to detail confidential party considerations, confirmed these messages were a good proxy for who was working hard.

The government keeps tabs on the number of contributions first-term MPs make.

“[Community recognition statements] are an indicator of how well your office is working and how good a local member you are. If they’re not doing them, then their office is not functioning well, and they’re not going out into the community and meeting these groups,” a Labor MP said.

Recognition statements made up about two-thirds of an average lower house MP’s contributions. Lane and James each made more than 400 of these community shout-outs.

Willoughby MP Tim James was among the top contributors in parliament.

A Liberal source said he was not surprised that James and Lane were the party’s highest contributors in the lower house, saying they were both ambitious and hard-working and, in the case of Lane – elected by 54 votes following a recount at the 2023 state election – “terrified of losing his seat”.

Total contributions do not represent the extent of an MP’s value to parliament, and nor is there a direct correlation between contributions and effectiveness.

Some MPs spend considerable time knocking on doors, making calls and fundraising – activities that are vital to a political party’s success but harder to quantify. Others spend significant time chairing and participating in committees that interrogate policy issues facing NSW. Several MPs have been required to spend time in the speaker’s chair, limiting their capacity to contribute.

Community recognition speeches partially explain the electoral success of convicted Kiama MP Gareth Ward. Before resigning from parliament on August 7, three-quarters of his 499 contributions were spent scoring points with sports clubs, congratulating local high schools (21 times) and commending the Kiama and District Historical Society.

At the other end of the scale, Liberal MP Mark Taylor, who voluntarily left the shadow cabinet in late July, made only 89 contributions. His Seven Hills seat, part of a faded Liberal blue-wall of seats in Sydney’s north-western suburbs, was cut to a 1.8 per cent margin at the 2023 election.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he resigned ahead of the next election,” said one Liberal frontbencher.

Upper house MPs are elected to an eight-year term without the burden of local electorates, so they can focus on policies of interest and holding the government to account. Consequently, those who worked hard often used the array of parliamentary procedures to be effective, a Coalition source noted.

Greens MLC Abigail Boyd and independent Mark Latham were highlighted by the source as being very effective MPs and making significant contributions, with 487 and 458 respectively, well above the crossbench’s upper house average (301).

Greens MP Abigail Boyd chairs the NSW parliament education committee and made a high number of contributions in the upper house.

Greg Donnelly, a 20-year Labor stalwart, made the fewest contributions in the Legislative Council. The leader of the upper house, Environment Minister Penny Sharpe, spoke nearly eight times more than Donnelly and exceeded everyone else since March 2023.

Of the 113 times Donnelly has spoken in the house since the past election, about 10 per cent have focused on gender identity and biological women’s sport. More than half were questions written for him by the government, otherwise known as “Dorothy Dixers” (named for the American advice columnist who famously wrote and answered her own questions).

The few opportunities afforded to him by the government explain, in part, his lack of contributions. One source suggested the premier’s office wasn’t so hot on what he had to say.

Senior Liberal frontbenchers Damien Tudehope (520) and Natalie Ward (405), along with national education spokeswoman Sarah Mitchell (457), were the Coalition’s largest Legislative Council contributors. All three are party leaders in the upper house, so they have more responsibility for parliamentary processes.

As for Lane, holding on to Ryde by a handful of votes, his re-election could hinge on the votes of the owners of cats like Mr Leroy Brown.

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