Harry’s reasons

Harry Jenkins has ended the parliamentary year with a surprise, announcing he will resign as Speaker today:

In a statement to Parliament, Speaker Jenkins said he’d divorced himself from party political matters in order to carry out his duties in a non-partisan manner. “In this era of minority government I have progressively become frustrated at this stricture,” he said. “My desire is to be able to participate in policy and parliamentary debate, and this would be incompatible with continuing in the role of Speaker.”

Which is no huge deal if that’s all there is to it. But with the rift between Deputy Speaker Peter Slipper and his party widening of late – the LNP is presently considering disciplinary action against him – the suspicion exists that the government has reached an arrangement with him. If so, the return of Jenkins to the floor would enable the government to win confidence motions 76-73 rather than 75-74. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Events are moving quicker than my iPad typing speed. Phillip Coorey of the Sydney Morning Herald reports:

The Liberal MP, Peter Slipper, is likely to become the next Speaker of the House of Representatives after Labor’s Harry Jenkins resigned this morning, shocking the Parliament on its final sitting day for 2011. Labor MPs will be asked to approve Mr Slipper’s nomination at a special caucus meeting scheduled for 10am.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,458 comments on “Harry’s reasons”

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  1. [Haven’t heard any goss, ML, but I’d be surprised if a ministry doesn’t arrive before too long.]

    ….was thinking exactly that myself.

  2. Stanny

    Slipper tended his resignation to the LNP today. He is now an indie. Abbott tried to talk to Slipper this morning, and Slipper would not allow him into his office

  3. Ducky @ 879

    musrum,

    Would you mind seeing if you can tweak cccp to work on Chrome? It’ll do the first two steps fine but “Post” doesn’t work.

    I’ll second that. I have previously reported precisely that problem.

  4. [1. We could have months of dirt on Slipper with questions to Gillard “Do you have confidence in the speaker” thereby bringing her in (just like with the Thomson)
    2. Slipper could be a very hostile speaker to the government (don’t discount that possibility)
    3. Slipper could be a very hostile speaker to the opposition (also likely)
    4. Slipper could be an astounding speaker and get re-elected (hmmmm)]
    ML, you seem to be under the misapprehension that the general populus gives a f*ck about the details of parliament. They are currently disengaged politically. No one is influenced by the snippets of parliament which they might accidentally run across. Slipper’s performance as speaker will have no more impact on the public’s perception than Jenkins’ did.

  5. I would actually like ALL future speakers to resign their party memberships upon taking the chair and would prefer that both parties agreed not to contest their division, while they remain incumbent. Once, of course, they leave the chair, for reason of resignation, removal or defeat in election, if they choose to stay in the house, their respective original party should agree to allow them readmittance and, at the next election, they face normal electoral competition in their division (if they choose to run again.)

    If you want to invoke Westminster convention, that is.

  6. Karma.
    [Tony Abbott has put money where his mouth is, spending more than any other parliamentarian on phone bills in the first half of 2011.

    The Opposition Leader often tells Prime Minister Julia Gillard to “pick up the phone” and call the Nauru government and Qantas boss Alan Joyce, for example.

    But he’s clearly been making plenty of calls himself, racking up close to $28,000 in telecommunications costs between January 1 and June 30 – about $10,000 more than the second-ranked Barry Haase, a West Australian Liberal.]
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-24/abbott-racks-up-biggest-parliament-phone-bill/3693244

  7. Finer point of history (apologies if its already come up): who was the QLD Labor nominee who didnt become senator in September 1975 when Bjelke instead appointed Albert ‘Paddy’ Field?

    A: Mal Colston.

  8. confessions @ 881

    Doyley:

    I have seen the movie, and take on board those points.

    I do however find it unlikely that such a scenario would eventuate.

    Then obviously you are unaware how the dreadful Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy got elected.

    Democrats regarded him as unelectable so gleefully voted for him in the Republican Primary.

    He won the primary and went on to win the election.

    That is probably the best known example. I would be surprised if there weren’t others.

  9. [Anyone who thinks Jenkins gesture was anything other than what it obviously was is deluding themselves. One thing we can say about Jenkins is that he is very loyal to his party.]
    That would be the same party who installed him in the speakership originally.

  10. [We’ve just had Mark Latham say that he should have told the truth and gone out with dignity, indicating that he didn’t.]

    That’s a laugh after the way Latham hightailed it out of the Labor Party. I should send him a bill for the shoes I wore out on his campaign.

  11. [Then obviously you are unaware how the dreadful Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy got elected.

    Democrats regarded him as unelectable so gleefully voted for him in the Republican Primary.

    He won the primary and went on to win the election.

    That is probably the best known example. I would be surprised if there weren’t others.]

    Which is why I hate the “Keep Abbott in because he’ll be easy to beat argument!”

    Don’t favour anybody for opposition but if you do, be mindful they could win, no matter what, so never support anybody that would make the place worse.

    Most party supporters in the US are advised by the parties to ignore the other party’s primary and treat all their candidates as beatable and focus instead on their own party. The best way to win an election is to work to make your side the best.

  12. [Greensborough Growler
    Posted Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 9:48 pm | Permalink
    Mod Lib,

    You are a lazy one, aren’t you?]

    Among my many failings you have successfully identified GG!!

    (Oh were are the smileys when you need them?)

  13. [Carey Moore
    Posted Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 9:42 pm | Permalink
    I would actually like ALL future speakers to resign their party memberships upon taking the chair and would prefer that both parties agreed not to contest their division, while they remain incumbent. ]

    Agreed

  14. Congratulation to the Queensland LNP for orchestrating a good old fashioned bunfight over the spoils of defeat… for putting a proven nonperformer like Brough up as their candidate in what would normally be a winnable seat…for putting a person like Seeney in as their official opposition Leader in Queensland…for letting their only statesman Shane Knuth leave the LNP to join the Katter Party…and for letting a nobody like Peter slipper get elevated to the Speaker Job because the LNP didn’t want to nominate a Deputy Speaker at the time after the last election…this is just too good and surpasses even the usual political genius of the rabble.

  15. lefty e @ 908

    Doyley:

    I have seen the movie, and take on board those points.

    I do however find it unlikely that such a scenario would eventuate.

    See my 813

    In the case of Pat “the rat” Field, it was a clear breach of a long standing convention by Bjelke-Petersen.

    What was particularly galling about Colston was that he was the ALP nominee that Bjelke-Petersen refused to accept and instead put Field into the Senate. Whitlam and the ALP refused to withdraw Colston as Bjelke-Petersen demanded.

    Loyalty was repaid with treachery. That is why Colston is particularly despised.

    So it was ‘Pat’ Field, not ‘Paddy’.

    It was mentioned by someone else that the appointment was to replace a Labor Senator who died. That was Bert Milner IIRC.

  16. steve,

    Well put. However the problem is more pervasive for the Libs. You can look at individual decisons and criticise. But until you link all the poor decisions both strategic and operational that the Libs have made as a whole, you only then see the massive cock up that is the Libs under Abbott.

  17. [I think confessions was refering to it happening here.]

    Yes, I was.

    My comment was specifically in response to Firth’s arguments against primary-style preselections in Australia.

    I don’t actually care what the US decide to do with their preselections.

  18. As for how this plays out in the public sphere, we’ll have to wait and see. While everyday voters don’t really much care for parliamentary procedures, the Libs are definitely good with their campaigning skills and know how to find the issues that stick with everyday Australians (even though the person who sits in the chair doesn’t affect them at all)

    If the Libs fail to get anything out of this, it won’t be a public win for the government. As I said, most people couldn’t give a damn about parliamentary stuff. It will be a parliamentary win though and will make negotiating easier for the government. It is possible, however, that having the “one by-election away from defeat” talking point and the increased confidence in themselves brought by a slightly easier House may make them appear better publicly.

    Only time will tell and I don’t want to get ahead of myself by declaring this a long term win for either side (obviously in the short term this is a win for the govt)

  19. Ducky @ 916
    I was unaware that musrum was the author of cccp.

    I sent a message to him through the support channels for cccp without knowing who it went to.

    I will pursue the more direct approach in future.

  20. confessions @ 918

    bemused:

    I tend to take the most hysterical offering against proposed policy improvements with a very large grain of salt.

    Pre-selection methods are not a policy issue.

    Are you an ALP member?

  21. Confessions,

    The problem with Primaries is they tend to select people who reflect the attitude and values of the people doing the pre selecting. I remember the Nats ran a Primary to replace Tim Fischer. The individual reflected 60 year oldfarmers. That person was knockd off by the Libs who pre selected someone from central casting.

  22. GG it is looking like a replica of the Beattie years. A tough time in minority government followed by thumping wins from then on. What will hurt the rabble is the divisions, the lack of policy development because of wasting time waiting for the lucky win, and putting hacks like Brough up instead of real candidates with talent.

  23. Doyley @ 919

    bemused @909,

    I think confessions was refering to it happening here.

    cheers.

    Really? I don’t think so since there have only been a couple of very tentative trials here.

    As far as I am aware the results were not encouraging.

  24. Today’s events should surprise no-one, and merely represent a continuation of the process that started in August 2010 with the election of a hung Parliament. The PM simply outplayed Abbott during the post-election negotiations with the independents.

    The mystery, to me, is how the LNP managed to put up Slipper as a candidate in 2010? It became apparent soon after the election – through his willingness to accept the Deputy Speaker’s role against the wishes of Abbott – that all was not well between him and his party. But in the circumstances of a knife-edge hung Parliament, for the LNP to further alienate Slipper was just plain stupidity.

    Forget the hysterics about breaches of convention, or Grattan’s pathetic whinge today. Abbott/LNP gave the Government a free kick politically. The Government has simply taken advantage of the opportunity to shore up its parliamentary position. Thank you very much. Any prospect of an early election is simply further reduced, and the workings of the minority Government made a lot simpler by the shift in numbers on the floor of the House

    I am a little intrigued about the jumping to conclusions that Slipper’s move might somehow further jeopardise the pokies legislation. It now means that all 72 of Labor’s votes, plus Bandt and Wilkie, are locked in. The suggestion that the Government might now take the opportunity to diss Wilkie is not logical – it simply won’t happen, for all the wishful thnking of the pokies lobby. PM Gillard won’t be backing down on this one, nor anything else for that matter. She knows full well the political price Labor paid for its perceived weakness during Rudd’s PM’ship and the early days of her own.

    But which of the other cross-benchers will back the pokies legislation in the House? I am not sure what position each of them now takes, but only needing 1 out of the other 3 is a lot better than needing 2 out of 3! Or maye even if 1 of them abstained, and the other 2 voted against, the Bill could still pass on Slipper’s casting vote (and Katter has had a record of abstaining during this Parliament). So I think the prospects of the pokies bill becoming law have been enhanced by today’s events, not weakened.

  25. [I would actually like ALL future speakers to resign their party memberships upon taking the chair and would prefer that both parties agreed not to contest their division, while they remain incumbent.]
    What a crock of an idea. What about thinking about the voters rather than the comfort of a politician? Under this absurd idea, if an electorate is unlucky enough to have it’s rep installed as speaker they are stuck with him/her as their rep no matter how useless they are; the party won’t challenge him/her in preselection and the opposition won’t run against him/her in an election.

  26. On a totally unrelated, but still important matter to some of us, Sachin Tendulkar is on course to make his 100th International hundred in the Test Match against the West Indies – he is currently on 67 not out.

    I had the great pleasure to see this fine player score a near faultless hundred against Australia at the SCG in January 1992 when he was only 18 years old, and I remember saying to my friends at the time that he looked so good that he could rewrite all the record books.

    This was also the first Test for a chubby leg spinner named SK Warne, who was carted all over the park by Tendulkar and Ravi Shastri, who coincidently is in the commentary box in this India vrs West Indies game.

    I sincerely hope that the Little Master can crown his stellar career with such a monumental achievement.

  27. [It was mentioned by someone else that the appointment was to replace a Labor Senator who died. That was Bert Milner IIRC.]

    Yes, bemused, that is correct. A deplorable episode in Australian political history.

  28. BK, from your link – another SAer…
    [The report also shows a federal Liberal MP took a 15-day taxpayer-funded trip to South America and New Zealand to study wine. Adelaide-based MP Patrick Secker left Australia on January 1 for 10 days of winery visits and meetings with winemakers in Argentina and Chile. On his way home, Mr Secker had a two-day visit to Auckland’s Oyster Bay winery.

    Mr Secker told Special Minister of State Gary Gray, who tabled the report, that the trip was aimed at “enhancing” his knowledge of the wines each country produces and their procedures for importing wine from Australia.

    “I will be imparting this new found knowledge to wine growers in the Barker electorate, with the view of hopefully assisting them by increasing the export of South Australian wine to the regions I visited,” he said.]

    Exports to SA competitors??? Really???

  29. Gee I was upset the system went down today. It was great veiwing watching Pyne and Co getting shirtier and shirtier with every thanks but no thanks for the Speakers position.

    I was in hysterics here.

    What I did enjoy most was QT and the NOalitions behaviour when the PM rose to reply.

    Mr Speaker certainly was prepared. Not one, not two,not three, but four were out the door in quick succession. And poor old Mesma got the rounds too.

    I don’t think this new Speaker will be very friendly to the NOalition. It won’t be a case of putting the Slipper in, I think he has gone straight for the Size 10 Steelcaps.

    Its Steelcaps for me …. and to think Tone, only two more years. How long do you think it will take for the FIBS to realise there has been a gamechange in QT tolerable behaviour levels. It’s hard to have your vote recorded when you are on the receiving end of a 94A.

    Bring on 2012.

  30. Well i just sent my first e-mail to a politician ever.

    Dear Peter

    Congratulations on crawling on all fours into the arms of Gillard. Congratulations on selling out the people who voted you into office. Congratulations on epitomizing what a useless self-serving politician looks like.

    Enjoy your time in Gillards arms, you fit right in.

  31. [for putting a proven nonperformer like Brough up as their candidate in what would normally be a winnable seat…]
    They haven’t called nominations yet. This is the fallout from the preselection jostlings for position. Slipper was always going to be a problem for LNP. It is only an extension of the situation after the last election when Slipper ended up with the deputy speaker position.

  32. Also on these Qld LNP members – how about Andrew Laming not voting on the speakership ballott??!!

    I would like to think that he was sending a subtle message to Abbott, but I rather suspect it is just because he is stupid and cant vote

  33. GG:

    Thanks for the substantive response.

    I don’t find these arguments necessarily compelling reasons not to trial primary-style preselections. At least give it a go. Perhaps start with safe ALP seats?

  34. bemused @ 921

    [So it was ‘Pat’ Field, not ‘Paddy’.]

    His name was Albert Patrick Field:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Field

    Derided as ‘the french polisher,’ this Bjelke Petersen dupe was a former ALP member who was not at all pleased when Gough called his mate Joh a ‘bible bashing bastard!’

    Those were the good old days!

  35. [Rummel, I hope it was the last as well as the first.]

    It takes a hell of a lot to get me off my arm chair. I was happy to gripe about the carbon tax and not really do something about it, but that bloody slipper.

    Im pissed about Abbott and now im a raging….. ok a cranky man from queanbeyan upset enough to write something to Slipper about my displeasure.

  36. The behaviour of Laming is getting weirder every time I hear from him lately. He seems to be leading the Redlands Chapter of the Great Unhinging.

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