Stephen Conroy plays Candy Crush on his iPad during Question Time

15

blog For the past several months I’ve been wondering what Stephen Conroy is up to on his iPad during Question Time in the Senate.

The former Communications Minister does ask questions of the Government in his role as former Defence Minister, but for most of Question Time in the Senate (from 2pm to 3pm on Sitting Days), the Labor Senator sits absorbed in his iPad.

I had believed that he was probably catching up on emails or briefing papers. However, I’ve recently been told by several other Press Gallery journalists that it is Conroy’s habit to play Candy Crush on his iPad instead of doing, you know … actual work. Buzzfeed reporter Alice Workman tells us:

And the issue came up in the Senate today, with the Government heckling Conroy over his addiction:

When I consider this situation, what primarily comes to mind is that it very much feels to me that Conroy is getting a little bored with his job as a senior Labor Senator and Shadow Minister. After all, Conroy’s already been a Minister for five years, been in the Senate for twenty years (he joined in 1996) and has pretty much been there and done that.

When you’ve sat through literally hundreds of hours of Senators screaming at each other in Question Time, it probably gets a little hard to sit through more, especially on Sitting Days which can stretch to between 12-15 hours each day.

This is understandable.

However, I must also note that I find this behaviour a little sad for Conroy. If he doesn’t have anything better to do during Senate Question Time — if things have gotten to the point where he’s playing Candy Crush instead of reading briefs or responding to email or other messages, the Labor Senator should really think about giving up his role for someone younger and perhaps with more zest for the job. Everyone gets tired of their day job. But few people are allowed to keep their jobs if they are using their time to play video games instead of working.

Perhaps Conroy’s time to leave the Senate is coming around.

Image credit: Screenshots from iTunes

15 COMMENTS

  1. I assure you I could play candy crush during question time and still follow relevant information especially if I did it for many years. I’m usually reading when I watch the live stream.

    After all question time is mostly posturing and takes very little to follow. Stimulation is important at around 14:00 otherwise you fall asleep.

      • Yes, yes, but there’s a huge difference between going AWOL to play Candy Crush and actively helping your team in PollyWars by keeping your mind in the House of Combat.

        Shorty’s problem is that he can’t afford to de-list his one-time star, ‘cos there’s no interchange bench on the Pink side.

        • Pink? Both Shorten and Conroy are definitely right wing, it’s why they keep backing the Libs on “security” bills, refugees and such.

          • That’s why the Socialist side is not Red :p Just like the Coalition is really only Sky (or Powder) Blue, not the strong and commanding colour we imagine. If the Libs and Labs get too much like each other, they’ll have to merge and become Mauve :)

          • If the Libs and Labs get too much like each other, they’ll have to merge and become Mauve :)

            I’d actually like to see that happen, all the right wings into the Libs, all the lefts into the ALP…least then we’d actually have an idea of what/who we’re voting for.

    • Exactly Woolfe, if most people were doing this at work, they’d either be placed on a disciplinary process or shown the door…

      Perhaps SC was just trying to be a smart arse and demonstrating how fucked he thinks the process currently is, but hey Steve it is the process dude…

  2. Candy crush? A bad choice. The ancient game of Go is much better, steeped in 4000 years of oriental tradition.

  3. Achieving a new high score on a computer game is the most productive and useful things to happen in question time for years.

  4. Someone ought to front him a copy of ‘Fate of the World’ or Cities: Skylines”. How about “Crusader Kings II”?

    They should all be forced to play grand strategy games against each other, and we could televise it. They learn something, we get some insight into how they think…

    • Fate of the World – Yes.
      Crusader Kings 2 – Hell no… These guys don’t need help with ruthless war mongering, and bloody internal infighting/backstabbing.

      :-)

  5. Can’t blame him really, the rest of them act like children screaming on the playground anyway…

Comments are closed.