Split Thread Australian speaker Harry Jenkins resigns

Alan

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We have a new Speaker.
A day of extraordinary political drama began when Labor Speaker Harry Jenkins announced his resignation.

The move pitched Mr Slipper into the spotlight, with the Labor Caucus wasting little time in nominating him for the Speaker's role - a move which will effectively give Labor one more seat in the House of Reps and lessen its reliance on independent and Greens MPs.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott hit back by threatening to throw Mr Slipper out of the party if he accepted the job.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-24/slipper-installed-as-new-speaker/3691680
 
Instead of arguing about something that we've argued ad nauseam why don't we instead discuss the latest news about the speaker of the house resigning and most likely soon to be former Liberal MP Peter Slipper being elected in his place. Of course the ALP has made sure that the deputy speaker is one of their own so they've still made sure that the position is paired.

Considering how a certain opposition leader is complaining about the ALP not following convention is a little laughable considering his stance on pairing.

In other news on this issue Christopher Pyne decided to act like an idiot in parliament and as Malcom Farr wrote on news.com.au was later told to shut up by the new speaker as well as kicked out a bunch of coalition members.
 
It was more Abbott ranting on about what a shameful day it was etc. As if he wouldn't have done something like this at the drop of a hat.

Well being the cynical person that I am I'd have thought that if Abbott had the chance to do this he'd get two ALP members into the position of speaker and deputy speaker and then ignore any pairing conventions.
 
Pretty clever of her wasn't it? She screws the morons Greens and the coalition in one hit.

I can't help having the feeling that this will come back to bite her ample behind sometime, somehow.
 
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TONY Abbott has declared that if someone from the Liberal or National parties takes the job of speaker then he or she will be expected to resign from their party. Following an emergency meeting of the coalition party room, the Opposition Leader said his colleagues had agreed that none of its members should accept a nomination from the Gillard Government for the Speakership.
"And any of our members that might accept such a nomination would henceforth be excluded from our party room and expected to resign their membership of the parties,'' Mr Abbott said.
The Opposition Leader said it was up to the government to provide a replacement for outgoing Speaker Harry Jenkins.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...ll-the-nationals/story-e6freuy9-1226204632930
What a hopeless leader, he had no idea, he did not look after his own team. Bring back Turnbull.
ABA ABA.
 
wombatwal, if I understand things correctly Slipper has already resigned from the coalition after he was appointed the new speaker.
 
wombatwal, if I understand things correctly Slipper has already resigned from the coalition after he was appointed the new speaker.
Yes, I think he did. But I think Jenkins resigned before Slipper did. This got right under Abbotts guard. I was at work when all of this happened, so not 100% sure of the time frame.
This has made the lower house much more stable, with some small breathing room for Labor.
Gillard has totally "outboxed" Abbott on this one.
Smartest PM in a long time.:D
ABA, ABA, bring back Turnbull.
 
I heard on the news that Albenese only approached Slipper at 8am today when Jenkins announced his retirement. And Jenkins prides himself on his integrity, so there's no way he would be part of any grand conspiracy.

I'm an avid listener to Question Time, and Jenkins was the best Speaker in my time of following parliament. Slipper is a very poor substitute, but who cares.

ABA.
 
The wonder of it all is how can this rabble, from both parties keep a straight face when addressing each other as the......"honourable menber" .
 
I have been a masochist this morning and listening to the toxic ravings of the conservative shock jocks on radio station 2GB this morning, plus the ravings of the people ringing in.
Alan Jones and Ray Hadley are frothing at the mouth over Slipper. Hadley spoke to a local newspaper bloke in Slippers electorate talking of Slippers rorts.
These conservatives are pathetic. Where were they last week, last month, last year, 2 years ago outing Slipper. They were nowhere to be found. Of course they would not out a fellow conservative. Weak as water these conservatives. The Liberal party has only themselves to blame for all of this. Abbott should do the honourable thing and fall on his sword.
They are trying to blame Labor for all of this. Pathetic, they took hold of this dopiness by Abbott and used it to their political advantage, would you blame them.
 
Abbott really blew this one, his strategy to wreck the parliament has really come back to bite him on the arse :D

And while the LNP gets most of the blame for driving Slipper into the arms of Labor, Tony Abbott’s relentless and hugely effective wrecking tactics over the past year would have also played a role in deterring Rob Oakeshott from throwing his hat into the ring yesterday and, potentially, delivering a humiliating defeat for the government. You can’t help but think the opposition signing up to parliamentary reform (and concomitant “group hug”) in September last year and then promptly welshing on the deal had its consequence in Oakeshott knocking them back yesterday.

The deal the Coalition signed up to last year — which, indeed, still sits on the Liberal website  — explicitly provides for a non-government speaker, despite Christopher Pyne’s claim yesterday that a non-government speaker was some sort of new Labor outrage. It also provided for pairing the speaker, which the opposition decided, on the basis of advice from its in-house legal hotshot George Brandis, was unconstitutional.

Oops. Pairing would have negated the impact of Slipper’s defection. Too late.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/11/25/was-labors-revenge-helped-by-abbotts-tactics/
 
In other news on this issue Christopher Pyne decided to act like an idiot in parliament and as Malcom Farr wrote on news.com.au was later told to shut up by the new speaker as well as kicked out a bunch of coalition members.

Before I watched that clip yesterday I never thought I could hate Christopher Pyne and his idiotic accent any more.

I'm going to miss Jenkins though, he was hilarious and managed everything pretty well.
 
Damnit, there goes the only thing of notability about our Division, because there's no way there'll ever be interest in Scullin on election night, even with the new boundaries.
 

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