Lawrence Xu Nan: Green MP on speaking more words than anyone in Parliament this term

Analysis has showed first-term MP Lawrence Xu Nan has spoken more in Parliament than any other MP this term.

The Sunday Star Times says the Green MP has said 420,000 words, more than four times the 102,000 word average. 

Xu Nan says the job of MPs as part of Parliament is to do two things - scrutinise bills and legislation, and budgets. 

"I think that everyone should hold this ability to scrutinise things dear to their heart."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you ever been watching Parliament TV and wondered how
much can these guys talk? Turns out there's an answer.
Analysis shows the average amount of words spoken by MP's
this term is one hundred and two thousand of them.
But one MP stands head and shoulders above the rest
is Parliament's Teddy Kathy. Lawrence Junan is a Green MP,
the most verbose MP in Parliament. He spoke over four

(00:22):
hundred and twenty thousand words over the last term. Congratulations Lawrence,
that's a hell of a performance.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you so much. Andrew. I honestly didn't know that
was the number before before I was told about it
last week. Do you I think teddy Kathy is a
pretty accurate description, to be honest.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Why do you do it?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Look, it's a really important part of any empty s
job is to be able to analyze a bill and
scrutinize a bill from any department, from any government. And
you know, I see it as just simply a part
of my job.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Do you wish that more people in the opposition benches
were holding the government to account and question every little
clause like you do.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Everyone is a little bit different. This is something that
but I do believe that government were all nts. As
a part of Parliament, our job is to do essentially
two things, to scrutinize any built on legislation that ministers
and cabinet and you know, the executive through ave you.
And the other one is scrutinized budget. So I think
that everyone should hold this ability to scrutinize things dear

(01:27):
to their heart.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
All right, well, Lawrence, and the impressive thing is English
is your second language, not your first language either, so
you're very good at it and very you use a
lot of it. So congratulations and I thank you for
your time today. Four hundred and twenty thousand words out
of that man, Lawrence J. Nan didn't even know who
he was until that little statistic. It's five twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
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