The Dreyfus Files - The Age
Immediately after Harry Jenkins resigned as Speaker, the Opposition Leader told the House of Representatives that ''former Speaker Jenkins does have our respect and gratitude, and whoever is to take his position will have our support and encouragement''.
That spirit of goodwill was exceptionally short-lived.
Within hours, Tony Abbott declared Thursday a ''day of infamy'', and sullenly claimed that ''under the Westminster system it is the responsibility of the government to provide the Speaker of the Parliament'' and that ''a government which cannot provide the Speaker should no longer expect to remain in office''.
The manager of opposition business, Christopher Pyne, who ought to know better, asserted in the House that ''this is the first time a government has not nominated one of their own to be Speaker of this parliament'', and that ''it is utterly unprecedented for the government not to follow the Westminster tradition of nominating one of their own members to be Speaker''.
We have come to expect bleating and screeching from this opposition, but this level of nonsense and invention needs to be corrected.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie had it right on the ABC Insiders program last Sunday when he described the election as Speaker of Peter Slipper, an opposition member, as ''unusual''. A non-government Speaker is unusual for the Commonwealth Parliament, but is also entirely consistent with the Constitution and entirely within the Westminster tradition. Section 35 of the Constitution requires only that the House of Representatives ''choose a member to be the Speaker of the House, and as often as the office of the Speaker becomes vacant the House shall again choose a member to be the Speaker''. That's it. Nothing about the government. There are 150 members of the House, and each of them is eligible to become the Speaker.
What does the history of our 110-year-old parliament show? That the very first Speaker, Sir Frederick Holder, who was elected to the inaugural House of Representatives in 1901 for the Free Trade Party (an anti-Labor party) and was elected the Speaker in May 1901, continued to serve as Speaker until 1909, including during the 46 sitting days of the Labor government led by Chris Watson in 1904.
Holder's entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography records that he was premier of South Australia in 1892, and that ''working with Sir Richard Chaffey Baker, first president of the Senate, he had the responsibility of adapting the forms and practices of Westminster and of the colonial legislatures to the needs of the new Parliament''. Holder's knowledge of the Westminster practices apparently did not require him to insist that the Watson Labor government provide a Speaker to replace him.
Three decades later, the Menzies led United Australia Party minority government was replaced in October 1941 by John Curtin's Labor minority government, relying on the votes of two independents. UAP member Walter Nairn, who had been elected Speaker in November 1940, remained as Speaker until June 1943. Curtin's task of governing was made considerably easier between October 1941 and June 1943 because Nairn continued in office. No one suggested in 1941, and nor should anyone suggest now that it is against convention, or contrary to Westminster tradition, for a non-government MHR to be elected Speaker.
I could add that of the 50 occasions since 1901 on which a Speaker has been elected, 24 were contests. The most recent contest until last Thursday was in March 1998 when Ian Sinclair was elected. Harry Jenkins stood against him. During the Hawke/Keating governments (1985 to 1993) the Liberal Party repeatedly and unsuccessfully nominated its members for election as Speaker – again not consistent with the current Liberals' imagined precedent that it is for the government to produce the Speaker.
At the state and territory level, just in the past few decades, several parliaments have seen Speakers drawn from the non-government benches, including SA 1968 (Tom Stott), ACT 1989 (David Prowse), SA 1989 (Norm Peterson), SA 2002 (Peter Lewis, Bob Such), NSW 2007 (Richard Torbay) and ACT 2008 (Shane Rattenbury).
And in Britain, several recent Speakers have not come from the government parties, notably the present Speaker John Bercow, a Conservative Party MP elected in 2009 under a Labour Party government.
I can understand the Opposition being devastated at Peter Slipper's election as Speaker. It has changed the political landscape, and made a full term of government nearly certain. Being devastated might excuse a bit of shouting and name calling. But it does not excuse simply inventing a ''convention'', which is in fact unrecognised in the Constitution or Westminster parliamentary practice.
I can only hope that Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne will honour the Opposition Leader's promise early on Thursday, and observe the real conventions of the House, which require respect for the Speaker and support for the Speaker's authority.
