Preferential roles of MPs on parliamentary committees

Parliamentarians owe a duty to wider institutions such as the parliament, the constituency body and their respective political parties. But what roles do they like to play in the parliament and does the parliamentary committee provide a habitat within which their preferred role can be deployed? To answer these questions 62 parliamentarians in three houses (the House of Representatives, the Senate and the ACT Legislative Assembly) were observed as they conducted public inquiries. Afterwards; observations about their behaviour on these inquiries were reviewed during interviews with 61 of these members. This paper presents a range of preferential role types based on the data collected. Contrary assumptions underpinning each of the role types create tensions between competing views about the behaviour that is appropriate to parliamentary committees and in particular the uses to which they should be put.