Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth

This episode of ‘Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth’, the CPA’s Podcast, speaks to Hon. Kate Doust, a Member of the Legislative Council from the Parliament of Western Australia.
We speak about her role as a Presiding Officer and Member of Parliament; how her trade union background has helped in her career; the barriers facing women in politics and how to overcome them; the role of ‘modern’ Commonwealth; and being the first recipient of the CPA Commonwealth Parliamentarian of the Year Award.
Hon. Kate Doust was speaking with Jeffrey Hyland, Editor of The Parliamentarian, the CPA’s Journal of Commonwealth Parliaments.
Music: Vine Crawler by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Recorded in August 2024.
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This episode of ‘Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth’, the CPA’s Podcast, features Rt Hon. Dame Emily Thornberry, UK MP continually since 2005, in conversation with Natasa Pantelic, who has been working in and around the UK Parliament for over 20 years.
The conversation explores the global challenges we face in 2025 and their impact on multilateralism, the role that the ‘modern’ Commonwealth can take in geo-politics, the many barriers facing women in entering political life and also the positive aspects of being an MP.
Dame Emily Thornberry is the current Chair of the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and her previous roles have included Shadow Foreign Secretary, Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade and Shadow Attorney-General.
Music: Vine Crawler by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
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Recorded in April 2025.

In The Juggle: How Politicians Prioritise, a special World Parliament Day mini-series of Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth, we peel back the layers of what Parliaments do and consider a simple concept that lies at the heart of parliamentary democracy – representation.
As an elected representative, the job of a politician is to collect the views of the people they represent, and use them to dictate their actions and decisions in Parliament. It sounds simple in theory, but the reality is that the views of the wider public are not often defined, ordered or presented to politicians in a simple way.
Their challenge is to constantly juggle the competing interests of different groups of people, all of whom want to talk to them, talk at them or even shout at them, and have a right to do so in a representative democracy. Successfully fulfilling a responsibility to represent others requires a constant balancing act.
So, in this mini-series, we ravel around the Commonwealth to ask Members of Parliament about their processes for listening to and filtering the daily demands on their attention, choosing what’s important or urgent, deciding how their time is best spent and what that means for how they operate on a day-to-day basis.
In this episode, we speak to Shri Anurag Sharma, Member of the Lok Sabha for Jhansi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, about how he manages his focus, time and energy whilst serving more than 2.8 million constituents, and the changing methods that his constituents use to communicate with him.
Music: Vine Crawler by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Visit the CPA website: https://www.cpahq.org/
Follow the CPA on social media:
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CPAHQ
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/commonwealth-parliamentary-association
Instagram: www.instagram.com/cpa_secretariat

In The Juggle: How Politicians Prioritise, a special World Parliament Day mini-series of Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth, we peel back the layers of what Parliaments do and consider a simple concept that lies at the heart of parliamentary democracy – representation.
As an elected representative, the job of a politician is to collect the views of the people they represent, and use them to dictate their actions and decisions in Parliament. It sounds simple in theory, but the reality is that the views of the wider public are not often defined, ordered or presented to politicians in a simple way.
Their challenge is to constantly juggle the competing interests of different groups of people, all of whom want to talk to them, talk at them or even shout at them, and have a right to do so in a representative democracy. Successfully fulfilling a responsibility to represent others requires a constant balancing act.
So, in this mini-series, we ravel around the Commonwealth to ask Members of Parliament about their processes for listening to and filtering the daily demands on their attention, choosing what’s important or urgent, deciding how their time is best spent and what that means for how they operate on a day-to-day basis.
In this episode, we speak to Rt. Hon. Nelly Mutti, Speaker of the National Assembly of Zambia, about how the role of Speaker brings different pressures and priorities compared to other politicians, the need to think about fairness and gender equality when presiding over parliamentary business, and the key improvements she hopes to make to the Zambian National Assembly in her time in office.
Music: Vine Crawler by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
Visit the CPA website: https://www.cpahq.org/
Follow the CPA on social media:
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On a special episode of Parliamentary Conversations in the Commonwealth, the former Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, sits down with CPA Secretary-General and former UK MP, Stephen Twigg, for a wide-ranging conversation.
Gillard, who served as Prime Minister from 2010 to 2013:

• praises affirmative action as a proven solution to increase the representation of women in Parliament (07:16)
• warns that 'we could be back to ground zero' unless world leaders urgently address vaccine inequality (19:10)
• highlights that COVID-19 had left 'unanswered questions' about children's mental health (22:55)
• calls the situation in Afghanistan 'absolutely heart-breaking to watch' (31:12)
• admits that the Commonwealth must 'stare' its colonial history 'in the face' in order to move forward (32:40)

Music: Vine Crawler by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)
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