Tony Abbott & the Speaker 31.05.2011
Channel: aussiecrowntv
Date: 2011-06-02

Australia has not had a hung parliament for over half a century. Question time on 31 May 2011 demonstrated that life under a hung parliament can be very different. What happened demonstrates the value of the Westminster system - provided our leaders are not prepared to abuse it.

But for the quick action of Tony Abbott, the Leader of the Opposition, we could have entered into a period of potential instability, with the possibility that the government could have lost its majority. An opportunist would have encouraged this; a statesman would not and did not. 

The house was as usual unruly, with numerous noisy interjections.  Ao the Speaker Harry Jenkins issued a ''general warning". 
  
In reaction to presumably the next interjection, the Speaker ''named'' the opposition Member for Paterson, Bob Baldwin. 

Following convention, the leader of the house in the government moved that the member's attendance of the house be dispensed with a 24 hours.

Where a government has a majority in the house that motion is normally passed. 
 
But in this Parliament the government cannot assume that the crossbenchers will vote with them.  If the vote is lost, under the Westminster system it is treated as  a vote of no confidence in the Speaker.

In a famous incident in 1975, the Speaker Jim Cope named a minister in the Whitlam government, Clyde Cameron.  When the  Prime Minister refused to move the usual motion, Mr Cope realized he had lost the confidence of the House.  He resigned immediately and was replaced by Mr Gordon Scholes

Mr. Scholes is  most famous for his letter to The Queen, requesting her to intervene after the Governor --General , Sir John Kerr, had withdrawn  Mr. Whitlam's commission as Prime Minister.  The letter from the palace indicated that the power to  commission a government is vested  by the Constitution in the Governor-General and that, however interested, The Queen could not overrule that decision.

On the evening of 31 May the member for Lyne, Mr Rob Oakeshott, voted with the opposition.  The result was that the government lost by one.

  ''After question time I will be taking the time to consider my position,'' Speaker Jenkins indicated.

After the 2007 election, the reappointment of Harry Jenkins as Speaker was not assured. The Rudd government gave consideration to appointing an independent and even a member of the coalition.

On 31 May, the Speaker would have had to have resigned and the government would then have been forced to find a new Speaker.  It would lose the vote of the new Speaker, and in addition, could not be certain of the vote of Mr. Jenkins, who could have resigned from Parliament.

 No doubt to the delight of the government, and the reassurance of the Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Tony Abbott, without hesitation, moved a vote of confidence in the Speaker.

He was seconded by the Prime Minister. Her speech has had to be edited to conform to YouTube requirements.