The marathon parliamentary sessions to debate the budget for 2012 come to an end today with a six-hour discussion on the Office of the Prime Minister, which traditionally is left for last.

There were 48 hours of talk in the House of Representatives, dealing with the various ministries and, for the first time, the estimates for the various government entities were added to the budget debate, which meant that another 36 hours were devoted to discussing issues pertaining to organisations that form part of the government administration.

At times, the debates in the House were interesting and lively; but for most of the time the speakers hardly raised any sparks, except to make their presence felt. More often than not, their speeches were a repetition of what has been heard over and over again, and it was not difficult for journalists to trim their reports.

One wonders what interest is generated among the public in such lengthy debates. It would be good to know how many people actually follow the debates on the radio, and how many read the news stories published in the newspapers the following day.

Of course, the budget presentation by the Finance Minister, as well as the speeches delivered first by the Opposition Leader and countered by the Prime Minister, attract more attention. But what about the rest?

We are sure that whereas some parliamentarians take matters seriously and prepare themselves well for what they have to contribute to the debate, others simply fill up the time they are allotted with much less dedication. When one listens to the debate, it is immediately clear when MPs are really into the job, and when they are just obeying their Whip’s orders to speak.

Having said this, what is perhaps more important is not what was said in Parliament, but how will the measures that were announced in the budget be implemented over the next months.

In fact, this is the real distinction that can be made between what government spokesmen say and what their Opposition counterparts speak about. While government MPs use their time in the debate to speak of what has been done and what the government plans to do, Opposition MPs use the opportunity they are given to criticise the government on what it promised but did not deliver.

It is then up to the public to decide who was the most convincing.