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.
We have been told that if, as grandparents, wish to visit our newly born grand children in hospital, we will have to have whooping cough booster shots.
I support this approach. I also support transferring some of the financial risk back to those who are apparently willing to risk the health and financial health of others by free-riding on the (minute) innoculation risks that others take.
Boerwar@1287:
[The All Ords is a whisker away from plunging back down through 4,000 mark.]
Thanks for the heads up Boerwar, much appreciated.
Funny why don’t journalists just believe what harry tells them , they always no matter think there is a story in a story,
Most should really try their hand at fiction
[Abbott tried desperately to head off Slipper’s election, working all morning with his deputy, Julie Bishop, to persuade Rob Oakeshott to stand with the Coalition’s backing. He even offered the independent the deal he had refused during last year’s negotiation to form government – the ability to move private member’s legislation and still be Speaker. But it was too late to build bridges. ]
If Lenore Taylor’s report is correct, then Hockey did indeed lie.
Two long years to keep the old, the young and the restless from breaking ranks.
Can Mr Abbott do it?
Beorwar suppose we have to be pleased we left our super in cash, as oh retires next week-
Boerwar
Well Abbott has already failed. Slipper gone. Is Turnbull next?
confessions
Agreed
c
I thought the fact or non-fact at issue was whether Mr Abbott talked by phone with Mr Oakeshott?
Perhaps Ms Bishop was doing the phone calling while Mr Abbott and Ms Bishop were talking to each other?
If so, was Mr Hockey telling the truth by not telling the real truth which was that Mr Abbott was indulging in attempted grubby, secret deal-making? Is it not the real issue that, once again, Mr Abbott has demonstrated his inability to negotiate an outcome?
Abbott should get wet brown paper bags for Xmas to practice his negotiating skills on.
my say
[Beorwar suppose we have to be pleased we left our super in cash, as oh retires next week-]
Indeed so. Shows plain commonsense, and may your OH and yourself enjoy your retirement years.
Most of the spivs who advise in the super world have been advocating around 10% in cash. Lately they have been subdued enough to say that perhaps 30% would be wise.
Still, they appear to have partially solved the problem of the baby boomer ageing bulge which was going to destroy our economic growth.
Tens of thousands of super spiv-burnt boomers are having to return to the labour market or defer retirement plans.
The media should be asking the Liberals what inducements, if any, were offered to Rob Oakeshott……yes, that’s the same member for Lyne that the Coalition & their media toadies have spent all year bagging – hypocrisy runs rampant on their side.
Socrates 1274
I listened to Wilkie too this morning. I actually thought he had changed his tune slightly. To me it definitely didn’t sound black and white.
Boerwar,
I am quite a few years away from retirement and have DIY’d my super and right now it is all in cash. Will remain that way till I can see some benefit in putting it back in shares or property.
I think the chances that the Libs tried to do a last minute deal with Oakeshott are about as likely as that Labor did a pre-arranged deal with Jenkins and Slipper. The key issue here is that the Libs showed poor political judgement in thinking they could do any deal with Oakeshoot, something they were guilty of 15 months ago. In terms of political manoeuvring Labor has it all over the Libs.
The one bonus for the LNP is that at least they no longer have to worry about a messy pre-selection fight in Fisher during the state election campaign.
DavidWH
It was confirmed this morning that Abbott and Bishop did in fact try to strike a deal with Oakeshott. It is not a rumour. Hockey just chose to lie. He is a very bad liar. He does it so often, he thinks people believe his bullshit.
confessions
[Lenore Taylor is a good read, as usual.]
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/wounded-abbott-may-need-to-revisit-strategy-20111124-1nx05.html
The picture in this SMH article is the front page picture of the AFR too – the phrase, if looks could kill, comes to mind. It’s gold
SK
Yep. One of the best things we ever did financially was to decide to manage our own super. Without any specialised financial knowledge but with a bit of common sense we have consistently out-performed the industry as a whole – for the simple reason that we don’t fork out the fees the industry pays itself for providing its clients a second-rate guessing service.
Interesting perspective
[Geek Powered
@geeksrulz
Hockey was quite upbeat and jovial on the radio this morning. It’s on and he knows it. 🙂 #libspill #auspol]
[SkyNewsAust Sky News Australia
Independent MP Tony Windsor live on Sky News ch 601 now. #auspol
51 seconds ago]
[I think the chances that the Libs tried to do a last minute deal with Oakeshott are about as likely as that Labor did a pre-arranged deal with Jenkins and Slipper.]
You conveniently omit the statements by two of the people involved in this story.
1. Jenkin’s statement in parliament a sto his reasons for stepping down – no mention of a deal.
2. Oakshott’s statement that Abbott did approach him with a deal.
[The key issue here is that the Libs showed poor political judgement in thinking they could do any deal with Oakeshoot, something they were guilty of 15 months ago. In terms of political manoeuvring Labor has it all over the Libs.]
The key issue is that Abbott failed to reassure Slipper that his best interests lay in remaining in the Liberal party and holding on to the job of deputy speaker. Whether Abbott tried and failed in this or didn’t try at all is a line of real interest and the media will simply not persue it as it will reflect poorly one their two dimensional man Tony Abbott.
[It was confirmed this morning that Abbott and Bishop did in fact try to strike a deal with Oakeshott.]
Has Oakeshott been asked if this is true?
Hmmm… today’s ‘The Australian’ naturally running some more AGW is nothing to be frightened of type stuff. As usual they ignore the impact of reduced alkalinity in the oceans. Inconvenient.
Leroy 1253
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/tax-threat-to-parents-who-dont-have-their-children-immunised-20111124-1nwwx.html
More in the article. Good idea IMO.]
+1 Another good long term policy development on the financing of health
[1. Jenkin’s statement in parliament a sto his reasons …]
=
[1. Jenkin’s statement in parliament as to his reasons …]
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/south-australian-mp-michael-pengilly-likely-to-lose-pre-selection/story-fn59niix-1226205412355?sv=16302af62db788bc4c9975cebceecf1f
[South Australian MP Michael Pengilly likely to lose pre-selection
BY: MICHAEL OWEN From: The Australian November 25, 2011 12:00AM
A LIBERAL backbencher in South Australia faces losing preselection before the next state election after calling Julia Gillard “a real dog” on Twitter.
Senior Liberal sources told The Australian yesterday that Michael Pengilly, an MP dumped from the opposition frontbench after last year’s state election, had become a liability and that powerbrokers had had enough.]
The rest is behind the paywall, but you get the idea.
DWH
[The key issue here is that the Libs showed poor political judgement in thinking they could do any deal with Oakeshoot, something they were guilty of 15 months ago.]
There are several key issues. One identified by Mr Oakeshott some months ago was the Mr Abbott was saying nice things to him personally while sending senior shadow ministers to Mr Oakeshott’s electorate to bad mouth him.
But the real key issue for the Liberals is that, having bet the farm on a populist destruction of decorum they have lost the farm.
Last-minute manoevring by trying to get Mr Oakeshott into the fold are a symptom of Mr Abbott’s policy tabula rasa.
COMPREHENSIVE FAIL for Mr Abbott.
[A LIBERAL backbencher in South Australia faces losing preselection before the next state election after calling Julia Gillard “a real dog” on Twitter.]
I wondered why he was feigning contrition – now I can see why
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/surprise-resignation-from-house-speaker/story-e6frea8c-1226204377226
[New Speaker Peter Slipper under expenses scrutiny
by: Steve Lewis | Mark Kenny From: AdelaideNow November 25, 2011 12:00am
10:15AM UPDATE
The Liberal National Party should have acted against Peter Slipper years ago but ignored members’ warnings, long-serving federal Liberal MP Alex Somlyay says.
The member for Fairfax says the federal coalition must now live with the consequences of that for the next two years.
“People like me and many other branch members have been warning the party this was going to happen, that Peter Slipper’s behaviour just can’t be tolerated any longer and that something should have been done years ago,” he told ABC radio.
“It has all come to a head now, and we’ll have to live with the consequences for the next two years.”]
Rolling updates, scroll down article for older ones from Wilkie & Fitzgibbon
Tom you are ignoring the fact that Abbott did in fact intervene to stop a disciplinary hearing against Slipper earlier this week. In any case it’s not really Abbott’s job to get involved in local discipline matters. I think people who blame Abbott for what Slipper did are just participating in Abbott-bashing a favourite PB passtime whether the bloke deserves it or not. Often he does but on this occasion there was not much more he could have done. If a member wants to turn on his party then there’s not much his party can do about it.
In relation to the Oakeshott matter, well by then Labor had already trashed the convention so I guess it was open slather.
[Is it not the real issue that, once again, Mr Abbott has demonstrated his inability to negotiate an outcome?]
Indeed it is. As Ms Taylor states, too much water has gone underneath that bridge for the indies to be swayed by anything Abbott offers them.
Dave
[you are ignoring the fact that Abbott did in fact intervene to stop a disciplinary hearing against Slipper earlier this week]
You are ignoring my words
[Abbott failed to reassure Slipper that his best interests lay in remaining in the Liberal party and holding on to the job of deputy speaker. Whether Abbott tried and failed in this or didn’t try at all is a line of real interest… ]
[There’s been a whooping cough outbreak where I live, which as seen several children need to be airlifted to the city for hospitalisation.]
During the week, Milton SS (Bris) reported over a hundred cases! Yet this disease is often fatal, esp in small babies (inc those under vaccination age). Unbelievable! The sort of stupidity which happens when the last generation of those who lost children, siblings, friends to potentially fatal childhood illnesses is very old or dead.
Timeline of vaccines tabulates the development of vaccines, though not the time at which each became widely available – esp free via state & national vaccination programmes – nor the dramatic reduction in death rates which accompanied widespread use.
My Mum lost a sibling to diphtheria, so we were vaccinated & ‘boostered’ asap. Kids we knew (or had heard of) succumbed to polio – and we were kept home from a Bris exhibition in the early 50s because there was a polio epidemic. I hallucinated my childhood way through measles & chickenpox; some died, others were brain damaged, more were left with other serious problems. German measles (rubella) in pregnant women left an horrific trail of foetal damage. What we now know is that, in many of us who appeared to have escaped unscathed, genes were switched on, triggering genetic illnesses.
For decades, not only was immunisation with boosters and/or new vaccines conducted in schools; no kid could enroll without proof of age-relevant vaccination; halting epidemics. Yet no sooner do we have a generation of parents who’ve grown up in societies where these illnesses are almost unknown, than conspiracy theories appeared and people believe them. Every behavioural problem, every side effect of whatever, is attributed to vaccination – and belief in this continues despite overwhelming, rigorously conducted, supervised and replicated international research to the contrary.
Sure some people, esp babies and children, are allergic to specific vaccines – eg smallpox (esp in people who’d had infantile eczema) some forms of early polio vaccine & others (these problems have been/ are being identified); but they were often (?usually) the result of underlying genetic/ prior disease causes. But compared to these epidemic diseases’ horrors (inc residual CPReactive) the toll is minuscule.
Not only do parents who don’t have children (& themselves) vaccinated risk their own child’s life, they put at risk those of every other non-vaccinated child with whom they come in contact.
Rudd was asked about Slipper at a door stop. He had not spoken to Slipper re speaker role at all. He was with Slipper last week, stemming from their family friendship over the past 15 years. Nothing more to it.
Agree with Gigi that Wilkie on abc tv this morning seemed to have drawn back a little on his hard-line position. He was clearly being more diplomatic with his words.
I reckon the PM is genuine in her intentions, but the reality is that no chicken can be counted until it’s hatched. It’s obvious that Wilkie’s general sympathys lie in progressive directions, but his language now seems to reflect a more balanced nuance, which is suited to the current change in the 2-party dynamics.
Aguirre @ 1248;
[NBN was probably the one they really wanted to stop, and that might explain the urgency with which they’ve been trying to unseat the ALP. That’s the one with the potential to hurt Murdoch the most, at least.]
Absolutely spot-on. You said it so much better than me.
And of course Tony has now failed them on this and more as you point out. Their boy has not delivered and is unlikely to before the next scheduled election.
I suspect come the New Year ‘Mordor’s mob’ here in Oz will be thinking about who they need to promote to replace RAbbott.
That’s if they are not too busy defending their crumbling UK empire or responding to legal cases from politicians and others of course.
Look the conclusion I reach is that Abbott is a Sargeant-Major type leader at best. He’s an NCO – yelling loudly at troops, geeing them up, looks like the man for the job when he’s on parade, but not capable of the big leadership ideas, cant see the enemy positions, doesnt see them coming, is behind the game, and probably doesnt even believe he should be in command.
Costello had the same weakness: school prefect hooting abuse while the Captain shakes the hands.
Article starting on front page of the AFR today, commencing with:
[Labor’s “seriously flawed” Fair Work Act was the biggest single economic issue facing the nation, the new president of the Business Council of Australia, Tony Shepherd, said.]
Pretty big call: “biggest”
If the BCA sets this as its narrative (Tony Shepherd is BCA president for next 2 years, i.e. up to the election), could be positive for Labor
OPT:
It’s pure self indulgence on the part of those parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. I have the same issues with people who don’t vaccinate their dogs/cats.
[mishaschubert Misha Schubert
Anthony Albanese doesn’t suppress a smile when he says Tony Abbott walked away from a deal last year to pair the Speaker.
2 minutes ago
mishaschubert Misha Schubert
Albo: Abbott’s own colleagues were “pretty open” yesterday to government MPs about their dismay at his strategy.
1 minute ago]
[ Every behavioural problem, every side effect of whatever, is attributed to vaccination – and belief in this continues despite overwhelming, rigorously conducted, supervised and replicated international research to the contrary.]
Damn right. We’ve reached the point where anyone with access to the internet can suddenly proclaim themselves an expert on anything: vaccination, wind farms, climate change, whatever. We’re witnessing a rise of pseudoscience, and the anti-vaccination camp is right in the thick of it.
It beggars belief that, 14 months after backing down on Oakeshott’s suggestion that the Speaker be allowed to vote on bills with his/her Party, we find Abbott offering a deal to RO that they will lay off him in his electorate, the Libs won’t run a candidate against him and they will allow him a vote.
The LOTO has become creepier than ever and still he accuses the PM of being squalid!
Victoria – 1333 – “Nothing more to it”
I wouldn’t say as categorically as you that there is “Nothing more to it”. The photo of Rudd and Slipper conveyed a lot more.
Tom so what do you suggest Abbott should have done? Something like this
http://www.smh.com.au/national/abbott-calls-for-calm-over-slipper-challenge-20111121-1nr0e.html
or something like this
http://www.1015fm.com.au/2011/11/tony-abbott-backs-peter-slipper-as-good.html
I’m not really sure what people expected Abbott to do to interfere in what was a local dispute over pre-selection.
Karma is a bitch.
Mr Rabbit reneged on a deal (in writing) with the indies and the government that the speaker and deputy speaker would be paired so that the side providing the speaker does not lose a vote.
He made his bed through his deceipt and duplicitousnes.
The Noalition can now recline vertically in it.
(Ps I hate using the word lie………oops)
[Agree with Gigi that Wilkie on abc tv this morning seemed to have drawn back a little on his hard-line position. He was clearly being more diplomatic with his words. ]
Wilkie is now the SenX of the House.
On pokies reforms, Labor was intending to implement reforms long before Wilkie was elected. I can’t see how anything will change on that score now.
[mishaschubert Misha Schubert
Albo asked if he can rule out a diplomatic or other post for Harry Jenkins. “Harry Jenkins has not been offered anything.”
2 minutes ago
mishaschubert Misha Schubert
Albo: “There is no deal with Harry Jenkins. It is what it is.”
2 minutes ago
mishaschubert Misha Schubert
Albo: It wasn’t just me. A lot of the media thought Slipper might be the candidate. You didn’t have to be Nostradamus.
47 seconds ago]
[ It’s pure self indulgence on the part of those parents who refuse to vaccinate their children. ]
Agreed, confessions. It’s not just a “personal” decision. There is the concept of herd immunity, which means that their decision not to vaccinate has repercussions for the wider community.
After yesterday I think Wilkie is brave to accept government assurances.
[mishaschubert Misha Schubert
Albo: The first I knew that Harry Jenkins would step down at 9am yesterday morning was yesterday morning.
2 minutes ago]