Lurching towards Smallwoodism

By way of some stellar research by the House of Assembly legislative liberry, here is a comparative chart showing the number of sitting days in each session of the House of Assembly since Confederation.

The chart is cleverly colour-coded by the party in power, with pale colours indicating sessions which ended in election calls.

(Click to enlarge.)

The Golden Era for legislative wonks lasted about 25 years, from the early Frank Moores years through to the Clyde Wells government.

The decline in (among other things) House sittings began under Tobin, and shows little sign yet of slowing down.