It doesn’t feel like we have quite as many “pic facs” or “photo ops” as we once did around Parliament House. They are those staged moments set up for TV cameras that capture some formal moment in the nation’s life or politics, the ABC’s Laura Tingle reports.
Greeting a foreign dignitary, a meeting of the national cabinet — that sort of thing. It’s all smiles and shaking hands and a few jolly japes exchanged but no formal media questions. Just something to ensure the event is captured for the evening news.
On Tuesday afternoon in the prime minister’s office, after Question Time, there was a “Pic-Fac Only” set up so that the cameras could catch former Chief of the Defence Force, Sir Angus Houston, ceremonially hand over the Defence Strategic Review that he had been commissioned six months ago to undertake in conjunction with Stephen Smith.
