Calls for collaboration and cooperation sound and look an awful lot like wishful thinking, don’t you think Mr Editor?

If the banter on the blogs is any indication, we have people on either side who keep scorecards, lengthy lists of the wrongs that each party has committed or of things that have been said, one about the other, that point up why neither side will ever work together — or should not.

Stop it people. We have got to move off on this. We do not even have to change the Westminster party system to make it happen. Or spend big bucks.

But what is required is leadership and a willingness to at least try and approach the people’s business differently.

Our leaders on the Hill don’t even have to start big on this. In fact, let’s see them start with the simple and the less ambitious.

First stop: the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). This is the committee headed by the Progressive Labour Party spokesman for finance, comprised of Government and Opposition members, whose job it is to keep under close scrutiny and review public expenditure.

PAC should be meeting weekly, in my books. Literally. They should be in the form of public hearings to call people into account, including, if necessary, ministers. I won’t dwell on the reasons why. They are legion and they are well known to all — deficit, waste, overspends and, dare I mention them, allegations of corruption.

But let me save space and move on to my point.

PAC requires MPs to work together to examine, review and drill down on Government expenditure.

It is necessary and vital work. It is work that is also in the country’s best interests. There is also some benefit here for MPs and their parties.

Through their questions and presentations, members get their chance to shine and show us their stuff.

Whether Government or Opposition members, they can also shadow a ministry and build a working knowledge of ministries they track. A bonus for them — and for us when there is a change in ministers or Governments.

This is called making better use of what we have. Sure our MPs may still ‘jaw jaw’ on the issues, as they should, so we can better know what each party and their representatives stand for, but the work will not be all ‘war war’ — and if it is, MPs can get called out for not doing their jobs.

They don’t have to just stop at PAC either. Multi-partisan committee work is common practice in other jurisdictions. We are not inventing the wheel here, parliamentary and otherwise.

It makes good practical sense and this is a point which was not lost in the SAGE commission either. I have not forgotten one of their key recommendations:

n Form three joint select committees from both Houses i.e. include Senators, giving each committee parliamentary oversight of two or three ministries each.

n Each committee would monitor their ministries on an ongoing basis, calling on ministers and civil servants to answer for their activities and their decisions.

Here’s the kicker, Mr Editor, and I quote: “This structure would enhance transparency of ongoing Government activity far better than a once-yearly budget debate filled with sound bites and the occasional parliamentary question.”

I could not have said it better myself if I wrote it — and I didn’t. What we now need is for the people in power to start to make it happen.