Extract from ABC News
It was a Wednesday afternoon in the nation's capital, and 73 men and one woman wandered into the room. The heaters were working overtime to take the edge off the crisp Canberra air.
But this meeting was different to the many other occasions they had come together.
They were not alone.
Spaced out around the chamber were 16 microphones. Their metallic bodies seemingly out of place, set against the dark blackwood panelling and deep green leather seats.
For the first time, the often-rambunctious debate would be experienced by more than just those watching from the public galleries above, and those reading accounts afterwards in the nation's newspapers.
"This is the Australian Broadcasting Commission bringing to you, direct from the floor of the National Parliament, the proceedings of the House of Representatives," the presenter, understood to be Peter Macgregor, announced to the nation.
"This is the first time in history, of this Commonwealth, that the regular day-by-day proceedings of Parliament have been on the air."
The original recording of that Question Time from July 10, 1946, lies in the ABC archives.
Seventy-five years on, the slightly crackly and muffled tones take listeners back to a very different Australia – a nation of almost 7.6 million people, forging a new identity in the long shadow of World War II.
No fewer than six former prime ministers were still serving politicians at the time.
Billy Hughes, James Scullin, Earle Page, Robert Menzies, Frank Forde and Arthur Fadden all occupied spots on the green benches – the latter as Leader of the Opposition on the day of broadcast.
Keen-eared listeners can hear Billy Hughes's hearing aid whistling in the background, amongst the coughing, shuffling of papers and fidgeting in seats picked up by the microphones.
Australia's 16th prime minister, Labor's Ben Chifley, was fielding questions at the despatch box. He would go on to win the next election, called just one month after that first ABC broadcast.
Menzies would of course return to The Lodge in late 1949. Two future leaders were also members in that 18th Parliament – Harold Holt and John McEwen.
Dame Enid Lyons, the first woman elected to federal Parliament, asked a question about the behaviour of Russia in then-occupied Austria – and whether Australia would raise concerns at the United Nations.
Remarkably,
though, some of the questions thrown at the government would not sound
totally out of place on the floor of New Parliament House today.
Striking workers, support for the wheat and poultry industries, media reports of Australian servicemen involved in a "riot" in Gibraltar amid post-war celebrations all featured.
Demands for union leaders to prove they were not communists fell, not entirely unsurprisingly, flat when hurled at Prime Minister Chifley.
One member can be heard interjecting "curse the press" during an argument about political propaganda and spin.
Three-quarters of a century later, and the interjections are just as highbrow.
Members lashed for 'lazy elocution'
The public reaction to that first broadcast was, in a diplomatic description, mixed.
Melbourne's Age newspaper appeared bored, and stated "the sitting was anything but lively", while The West Australian called for elocution lessons for some MPs.
"Members asked their questions in their most cultured voices," read a report in Adelaide newspaper The Advertiser, perhaps a reference to the favouring of rounded vowels by its readership.
The Sydney Morning Herald suggested the appearance of microphones may have tempered behaviour among the elected representatives.
"There were no foolish questions – an indication that no member is yet willing to play the buffoon without knowing the listening public's reaction," the paper stated in its report.
Today, ABC managing director David Anderson says the introduction of parliamentary broadcasting meant politicians were acutely aware they were "operating in the public eye", bringing attention to more than just what ministers and their shadows were spruiking day to day.
"MPs will tell you themselves that they get many letters from constituents who are listening or watching what goes on in Parliament," he said.
"That is a very good thing — active and engaged citizens make for a stronger democracy."
In an age where federal Parliament now broadcasts its proceedings live online, and media budgets are ever more constrained, Mr Anderson believes there is still a role for the ABC to relay events from Canberra across the nation.
"No other media organisation in Australia has the capability and capacity to reach a broader audience than the ABC," he said.
"The Australian community looks to sources of information that they trust, and there is no media organisation that is more trusted in this country than the ABC."
The curious case of the purloined microphones
Parliamentary broadcasting itself can be a pretty tame game, even if the battles playing out between MPs and senators become heated.
But one of the more dramatic moments during the ABC's tenure as the parliamentary broadcaster is the unsolved theft of three microphones, each worth around $940 in today's money, and "amplifying equipment" back in 1948.
A "well-dressed man" was seen leaving Parliament House carrying "broadcasting apparatus" on a Monday night, with Parliament House staff assuming he was just an ABC employee removing some of the broadcaster's kit.
The incident prompted an upgrade in security for the House of Representatives — the chamber started being locked after hours.
It was previously left open, such were the simpler times and security protocols of the 1940s.
The microphones have never been found.
Australia a pioneer of parliamentary broadcast
It is not the oldest program on ABC radio — that title rests with ABC Rural's Country Hour, which started seven months earlier – but it is the only one mandated by federal legislation.
Only New Zealand beat Australia to regular radio broadcasts. TV would not follow for decades.
"Australia and New Zealand were pioneers in broadcasting parliamentary proceedings in the Commonwealth.
"Broadcast
is a direct, unfiltered link to and from Parliament … and is
particularly important in an era when there is so much misinformation on
social media platforms."
Senate President Scott Ryan recalled tuning in to the ABC broadcasts as a primary and high school student.
"I am old enough to remember the debates about allowing television access to proceedings, first in the Senate, then in the House of Representatives," he told the ABC.
"There will always be a place for the broadcast media at moments of national import, or in providing interested individuals or groups with free, easy access to such basic information as proceedings in our elected national Parliament."
In 2021, a team of five ABC staff are behind the controls – in much more advanced broadcast booths at the rear of the House of Representatives and Senate chambers on Capital Hill.
They are the only media allowed to broadcast from the floor of Parliament.
The first broadcasts were aired on what is now ABC Local radio, before being moved to Radio National. After complaints from listeners, a new station was created in the late 1980s – the Parliamentary and News Network, now known as ABC News Radio.
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