The dress code for the House of Representatives, set in 1999 by then-speaker Neil Andrew and reinforced in 2005, requires men in the chamber to wear good trousers, a jacket, a collar, and a tie — a safari suit is also included as an option. Women are also expected to have a similar level of formality in their clothing choices.
There are exceptions, such as if the air-conditioning is broken or a member is rushing to a division and forgot their jacket, but otherwise it is jackets on.
The rules apply to the press gallery, too, and recently ABC journalist Patricia Karvelas was asked to leave the gallery in the House of Representatives because she was wearing a sleeveless top.
In the Senate, the rules were relaxed after a formal request from then-Greens senator Bob Brown. And Greens MP Adam Bandt recently wrote to speaker Tony Smith asking to relax the rules for journalists to be able to work through the hot summer sans jackets after a request from a photographer.
“As temperatures continue to rise, so too will the body temperature of journalists — who are regularly required to be physically active and who are required to work inside and outside the building,” Bandt said in a statement to Crikey. “Journalists and especially photographers should have a right to bare arms.”
“The parliament is the boardroom of the nation” said a Speaker years ago (and so they must wear suits). Somehow repellent that parliament should have to ape only that one kind of association in the wider society. But since so many of them are going to end up as board members afterward, maybe it’s reasonable they should get in early practice at sitting around in a suit.
OMG actually wearing a sleeveless dress in the Aussie summer….what a daring woman Patricia is. I guess in the dickensian parliament rooms it’s the equivalent of a page 3 woman!!