It is somewhat concerning that this is the way a group of elected members make important decisions for Victorians.

For an entire day, grown men and women talked over each other, or seemingly yelled indiscriminately to nobody at all for the sake of filling the Bendigo Town Hall with noise.

When the noise hit fever pitch mid-way through proceedings the Speaker interjected to say, “The acoustics leave a lot to be desired. It becomes a huge vacuum of noise when you yell in here”.

Ten seconds later, everyone started yelling again. 

It all seemed a bit counter-intuitive to healthy debate. Didn’t we all grow up learning that you must listen to people to work towards a solution?

There didn’t seem to be a lot of listening or compromising yesterday.

Moreover, the majority of motions put forward began with the words “note that the House congratulates” or “note that the House condemns”.

It seems a lot were movements to acknowledge things done in the past, good and bad.

There must be more important things to talk about than knocking old decisions made by Bracks or Kennett, or giving the current government a thumbs-up for funding a particular service.

Shouldn’t we be looking forward and trying to find solutions to TAFE and university funding cuts, superannuation shortfalls and mental health service funding crises?

Surely less talk, less back-slapping and more listening would lead to better solutions for all Victorians.