About the House: the official channel of the Australian House of Representatives

About the House is the official YouTube channel of the Australian House of Representatives in the federal parliament of Australia which forms part of the legislative branch of the Australian federal government. The channel mainly uploads full-length videos of Question Time in the lower house chamber, these clips are also broadcast by the ABC.
== Background ==
The House of Representatives forms the lower house of the Australian parliament, it's authority and the way it operates are stated in the first chapter of the Australian constitution. Members of the lower house have maximum 3-year terms, but this maximum term has only once been reached, with the 1910 federal election. Currently the lower house consists of 151 seats (with a maximum of 172 seats if redistributed). Full-preferential voting (known as ranked choice voting in the U.S.) has been in-place to elect members since the 1919 federal election.
The current 47th Parliament of Australia (since 26 July 2022) has a Labor party majority, with Milton Dick, member for Oxley in Queensland as speaker, Tony Burke, member for Watson, NSW, minister for Arts as leader of the House and Paul Fletcher, member for Bradfield in NSW as Liberal party manager of Opposition Business. Under the current Albanese ministry of 31st prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
== Content ==
The first video uploaded to About the House was uploaded on 22 October 2013, titled MTV MOVEMENThttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bugyTzhyVP8 was a video promoting the MTV Movement, organised by MTV Australia, the Museum of Australian Democracy, and Deloitte Digital, it was a campaign for a young Australian millennial leader born between 1982 and 2003https://www.echo.net.au/2013/09/mtv-hosts-youth-leader-movement/, representing around 30% of the population living in Australia at the timehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bugyTzhyVP8. The MTV Movement essentially aimed to have a greater number of those aged 18 to 29 involved in the political process, as 46% of the 1.2 million Australians not registered to vote were millennialshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bugyTzhyVP8, the millennial leader was announced to be Olly Tripodihttps://web.archive.org/web/20140214221935/http://www.mtv.com.au/shows/featured/movement/ (now head of YMCA Australia, the Y since 2022https://ymca.org.au/olly-tripodi-joins-y-australia-team/). The video itself has generally limited engagement, having only 120 views, 2 likes and no comments as of 10 March 2024, the video also features a vox-pop of MTV VJ's Keiynan and Kate Peck as well as candidates Rudo Makuyana and Todd Fernandohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bugyTzhyVP8.
The next nineteen videos uploaded to the channel were predominantly interviews and promotional material, with exception to the statement to the house regarding the Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 disaster in which all 298 passengers and crew were killed after being shot-down by Russian forces while flying over Eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014https://www.britannica.com/event/Malaysia-Airlines-flight-17, the video was uploaded on 18 July 2014 and featured a statement from at the time incumbent prime minister Tony Abbott to all members of the househttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcwkXQbQXyY.
Following these nineteen videos, the next eighteen videos were all Condolence Motions on the Hon. Edward Gough Whitlam (former prime minister who died on 21 October 2014https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gough-Whitlam) by various MPs, including prime minister Tony Abbotthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mymeN8dBMY4 and leader of the opposition Bill Shorten. After this six more interviews regarding different inquiries including child support, TAFE, the Telecommunications Act of 1997 (subsection 313(3)), a delegation report on the Asia-Pacific, Hepatitis C and an interview with Wade Mark, speaker of the house in Trinidad and Tobagohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6-ARMFuvHY. Then another eighteen videos were uploaded featuring the Condolence Motions of several MPs on the Hon. John Malcolm Fraser, former prime minister who died on 20 March 2015https://www.britannica.com/biography/Malcolm-Fraser.
From early 2015 to late 2016 the same interview, report, delegation and inquiry style videos, most under the series titled ATH TV (About the House Television). The most popular video as of 10 March 2024 on the channel was uploaded during this time on 12 October 2016, titled Address by the Prime Minister of Singapore being 38 minutes long, the video features Singaporean prime minister Lee Hsien Loong address the Australian house of Representatives with opening remarks from at the time prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and leader of the opposition Bill Shortenhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nj3fiDhmGg, the video has over 1,200 likes and over 198,100 views.
The channels regular content of Question Time recordings began with House Question Time 17 October 2016https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9huq-jhNDg, besides occasional ATH TV videos, House Question Time remains the channels main content since late 2016. In 2022, About the House uploaded videos of MPs First Speecheshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IgHeBZSPqU at the opening of the 47th Parliamenthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZV7BnF8hqw.
=== ATH TV ===
ATH TV (About the House Televisionhttps://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/About_the_House_TV) is a series of short videos ranging from 2 to 10 minutes in duration uploaded to the channel usually explaining a process, interviewing someone concerning a report or delegation or a committee overview. MTV MOVEMENT, the first video uploaded to the channel was also the first video in the same style as later ATH TV videos. The first video to be named as part of ATH TV was a nearly 8 minute video uploaded on 11 March 2015, titled Inquiry into Hepatitis C in Australia, it features Health Committee chair Steve Irons MPhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN-QxNen6KA. ATH TV videos rarely reach over 1000 views, with House Question Time continuing to be the most popular content alongside addresses to the House. The most popular ATH TV video with 4300 views and is titled Exploring retail bonds, it has 8 likes and is just over 3 minuteshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVL22HBixF0.
==== ATH News ====
A short lived series, which has since been merged into ATH TV was ATH Video News, featuring news regarding politics. The first video in this series, uploaded on 28 November 2013, titled w.comm forum Sydney, November 2013, which covered the second national w.comm forum aimed at improving women's engagement with politics across Australia and the Pacific island nations, the video has 62 views, no comments or likeshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kOUfD4DalE. The next titled installment was TAFE: an Australian asset, uploaded on 26 November 2014 it was about a report of the same name tabled by Education and Employment Committee chair MP Ewen Joneshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2_-_hjaxG8.
=== Video deletion ===
Current videos uploaded of House Question Time, have "...this replay will be available for approximately six months..."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XscP7DAsfo&t=4s written in the videos descriptions, implying they will be removed from the channel by the end of the year, no reason has been given for this change in availability; House Question Times from 2016 to 2022 don't seem to have this cap.
== References ==
Category:Users who joined in 2013
Category:Australian YouTubers
Category:Film YouTubers
Category:News YouTubers