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. OPT I think you take the word of any politician with a great deal of caution. Governments have to be judged on what they achieve rather than what their politicians say. I have never believed either side of politics has a mortgage on good government, bad government, ethics or honesty.

  3. DavidWH – on much of that legislation the Opposition did not turn up to vote in any significant numbers so you can’t count 87% as legitimate agreement.

  4. DavidDW

    [Governments have to be judged on what they achieve rather than what their politicians say.]

    Feel free to vote for Labor then. The current Libs are offering wrecking, economic voodooism, and policy black holes. And it extends well beyond Abbott.

  6. Gary I wouldn’t put it as harshly as calling it choosing poison. I think Australia is blessed in many ways and one of those is the structure and operation of our democratic process. I can’t recall any government in my lifetime that was wholly good or bad.

  7. george I do feel free to vote for Labor if I choose and have on occasions. That’s the thing that is great about our system you get to choose and even change your mind from election to election.

  8. [you get to choose and even change your mind from election to election.]
    Yes we noticed Peter Slipper giving us an example of that Tory wisdom yesterday.

  9. [Gary I wouldn’t put it as harshly as calling it choosing poison]
    I was referring to the spinning and lying. If they all do it and we don’t like it then it is choosing a poison.

  13. For those who asked, I’ve got the Post working again for cccp:

    To use the Crikey Clear Comment Preview script, install in order:
    Firefox
    Greasemonkey
    cccp
    or:
    Google Chrome
    cccp

    For those who don’t know, this is a script was written as penance for the other evil script I wrote for Poll Bludger.

    It provided a Preview function before the site based one was created. Some people still liked to use it because it provides some additional functionality: the HTML Cheatsheet; and easy quotes (example below).

    This little black duck@1007

    musrum,

    Thanks for that. Would have got back earlier but I’ve been watching Leveson (highly recommended) and Tony Jones trying his worst against Albo (no contest).

    No Problem.

  14. steve yes that’s democracy and the people of Fisher will get their chance to express their opinion on yesterday’s events if Slipper re-contests his seat at the next election.

  15. DavidWH:

    Albanese is the Labor go to person when you want to spin it like it isn’t. He is the person in Labor who I would be least likely to take at his word. Generally you have to listen to what he isn’t saying if you want to know the truth.

    You haven’t really given a satisfactory answer to this yet:

    Oh, so Albo is a liar. Your proof of this is? Anything from the past even will do.

    Not that you need to. Just that the one you offered (Abbott always says “No”) is pretty weak. That’s just a general claim made by many people – Albanese is hardly Robinson Crusoe there.

    How would one go about verifying this claim that the Opposition supported 87% of the legislation, by the way? And out of interest, is that claim only for the period since Abbott became leader, or since 2007?

  16. I think one thing has become abundantly clear over the past 12 months:

    Tony Abbott is very good at talking about doing things.

    Julia Gillard is very good at actually doing things.

    The penny is starting to drop all over the place that it is much better to have a “doer” as PM, rather than a mere “talker”, hence the slight change in narrative.

    Expect the calls for Abbott to start putting actual runs on the board to get more strident over the next couple of months.

  17. Yes, I am hopeful that Brough will be as successful as his last election outing in Longman. He is a failed Minister unable to attact funding for anything worth doing in the Howard Government and soundly rejected by voters since. The voters get it right quite regularly and I’m sure they would reject Brough in the future..

  19. bemused@1418

    musrum @ 1413

    I tried testing cccp with Chrome. Do I need Tampermonkey?

    I don’t have it. All I’ve got is Ad Block; Murdoch Block and Reddit Enhancement Suite.
    What version are you running?

  20. Aquirre I didn’t actually call Albanese a liar so don’t feel compelled to justify something I didn’t actually say. The no issue is actually very important in my opinion as it is being used to basically characterise Abbott in a negative way and it’s not strictly accurate, probably misleading if in fact the opposition has support much more legislation than they have opposed.

  21. And yet, Danny Lewis, TA clearly wishes to be seen as the action man. Not just in sport but also in climate change. Even in his bombsuit he wanted to appear as the action man.

  24. heard ro on abc midday news stating categorically that ta rang him at 12.15 yesterday and offered him the job of speaker – rob refused…

  26. [ausparty The Australian Party
    KAP has announced ten new candidates and now has 43 endorsed for next state election #qldpol
    12 minutes ago]

  27. [The no issue is actually very important in my opinion as it is being used to basically characterise Abbott in a negative way and it’s not strictly accurate, probably misleading if in fact the opposition has support much more legislation than they haveopposed.]

    Can you name even 2 occassions when Abbott has held a press conference or door stop to say that he supported legislation passed in the HoRs?

  28. Danny Lewis:

    The penny is starting to drop all over the place that it is much better to have a “doer” as PM, rather than a mere “talker”, hence the slight change in narrative.

    Expect the calls for Abbott to start putting actual runs on the board to get more strident over the next couple of months.

    The counter-claim to that would of course be that you can’t put runs on the board while you’re in opposition. But you’re right, the narrative has to change. Abbott’s big promise was that he would stop things happening. That’s recently morphed into a new claim that he’ll roll things back.

    Now it’s clear that this parliamentary term will run its course, and all the policy he’s been opposing will be well bedded in by the next election, Abbott now has to come up with something he will actually do if he wins. Otherwise there really is no point voting for him. He can continue with the fiction that he’ll repeal everything, but that’s going to look more hollow over time.

  30. Musrum
    It now works.
    I removed Tampermonkey – still didn’t work.
    Re-installed cccp – worked.
    Maybe didn’t need to remove Tampermonkey.
    Also have stfu installed but not sure how to use it.

  31. [Gary the Opposition is there to oppose the legislation they don’t support ]

    Not true. Not within cooee of being true!

    Westminster Parliamentary is the model used in school, university, speaking clubs etc debates; so either you’ve never taken part in one or have forgotten.

    The role of the Opposition is to formulate a position different from the Goverment’s, enunciate and defend every element of that position, use it to refute each of the government’s elements, and its general position.

    That this process is exhaustive, is one of the Westminster system’s greatest strengths, since, at its best, it identifies, analyses and argues (evaluates) even an issue’s minutae; adjusts (amends) the policy if necessary; argues every adjustment; makes those adjustments; conducts final arguments; then takes the policy to a vote of all members.

    There’s no way Abbott would have won a Rhodes scholarship if he couldn’t debate; so there’s no way he can pretend his definition of Opposition is in accord with our democracy; anymore that he can pretend his continuous, egocentric interruptions of QT, or rantings that Democracy is dead are breaches of Westminster tradition; or that he wasn’t lying yesterday when he claimed the election of an Opposition MP was a breach of Westminster tradition – when the current Speaker (Tory Party) was elected by Blair’s majority Labour government.

    Far from being dead, Democracy is often at its most robust under a minority government of MPs, all of whom have been democratically elected, because a minority government represents a wider sweep of political opinions, and forces far more negotiation and representative positions than does any single party/coalition (eg Lib-Nat)

    Even Abbott admits we can’t take his word unless it’s scripted and rehearsed – yet he rants endlessly about the PM’s single broken election promise. So he’s a hypocrite as well as a liar. Why would even a rusted-on Liberal believe him?

  32. bemused@1425

    Musrum @ 1418
    Chrome version is 15.0.874.121 m

    I see 2 sets of buttons.

    Maybe I need to reload cccp. Not sure how to do that.

    Just click on the link: cccp

    And then Click Install, and click through the prompts.

  33. Tom without trawling through pages and pages of web links I can only suggest that Abbott has provided bi-partisan support for the Afghan War on many occasions, recently on suggested free trade area and on the NT Intervention.

  34. Aguirre: One of the ways Abbott could put runs on the board would be to propose SENSIBLE legislative changes and then NEGOTIATE on a GOOD FAITH basis with government in order to get them passed.

    All of the above is, of course, unlikely to happen because he doesn’t do “sensible”, “negotiate” or “good faith”. He talks about them, of course – by way of insisting that these are things other people have to do – but he is incapable of them himself.

  35. OPT I never suggested that was all the opposition was there for and it was in context to the discussion we were having but then I expect you already knew that.

  36. Aquirre I didn’t actually call Albanese a liar so don’t feel compelled to justify something I didn’t actually say. The no issue is actually very important in my opinion as it is being used to basically characterise Abbott in a negative way and it’s not strictly accurate, probably misleading if in fact the opposition has support much more legislation than they have opposed.

    No, you didn’t call him a liar. That’s why I put your quote in there with the other one. You said you wouldn’t take him at his word, and intimated that he’s the worst ALP offender in that regard. And that he would “spin it like it isn’t”, which I took to be a form of lying. Sounds a bit like you spun your description of Albanese to make it look like you were saying something you weren’t. (insert smiley)

    And look, I really can’t see why the characterisation of Abbott that way is so important to you. Every single time he claims the government is “incompetent” he’s lying, in the strict sense of the word. But we’re all used to a bit of hyperbole, from both sides.

    And it still doesn’t address the fact that Albansese is far from the first to describe Abbott that way. So why single him out?

  37. [Far from being dead, Democracy is often at its most robust under a minority government of MPs, all of whom have been democratically elected, because a minority government represents a wider sweep of political opinions, and forces far more negotiation and representative positions than does any single party/coalition (eg Lib-Nat)]

    OTP: I find it very interesting when, on the odd occasion I find myself arguing this very point with Liberals, they don’t seem to understand it.

    To them, unless someone has a thumping majority then it means the system is broken (!)

  39. [Abbott has provided bi-partisan support for the Afghan War on many occasions, recently on suggested free trade area and on the NT Intervention.]

    Has he supported anything that actually works or benefits anybody?

  41. DavidWH: LOL!

    The Afghan War and the Intervention was things instigated by the previous Liberal Government!

    It’s hardly “bipartisan” of him to defend the decisions of his own party …

  43. [To them, unless someone has a thumping majority then it means the system is broken (!)]

    It’s because a misprint in the official Liberal dictionary.

    [Democracy: a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power.]

  44. Aquirre Abbott deserves everything that gets thrown at him from the government. He gives as good as he gets. The point I was making is that both sides of politics are guilty of political spin (lieing if you like) and that Albanese is the go to person in the government to lead the process.

  45. [Tom without trawling through pages and pages of web links I can only suggest that Abbott has provided bi-partisan support for the Afghan War on many occasions, recently on suggested free trade area and on the NT Intervention.
    ]

    I’m not talking about lip service – I’m talking about legislation. What change to the way we operate in the Afgan war has been legislated since the last election?

    Do you not remember Rudd’s style when he became opposition leader in 2007? Do you remeber how he frustrated Howard by agreeing with much of what Howard had proposed? Rudd picked a few key areas to differenciate himself from his opponent (IR, NBN, Health etc) and he went hard on these AND spoke in detail about his vision for government.

    Compare that with Abbott – he won’t even agree a pairing so that a minister can address a conference of on violence against women. He wouldn’t allow a pairing so that the Arts minister could attend the funeral of Margret Ollie.

    Abbott is rightly called out on his constant negativity.

  46. Morgan Face-to-Face good move to ALP

    ALP 45.5 (+2) primary 36.5% (+2)
    LNP 54.5 (-2) primary 45.5% (-1.5)

    Greens 12% (+0.5)

    Last election 2PP

    ALP 48.5 (+2)
    LNP 51.5 (-2)

    Sample size 864 electors

  47. Aguirre: One of the ways Abbott could put runs on the board would be to propose SENSIBLE legislative changes and then NEGOTIATE on a GOOD FAITH basis with government in order to get them passed.

    All of the above is, of course, unlikely to happen because he doesn’t do “sensible”, “negotiate” or “good faith”. He talks about them, of course – by way of insisting that these are things other people have to do – but he is incapable of them himself.

    Yep Danny, I’d agree with all of that. The counter-claim I put up was more the sort of thing Abbott or his acolytes in the press might have put forward.

    He is at an impasse now, anyway. Perhaps he can maintain the anger re Carbon Pricing, Mining Tax, etc. But once they become fact, people are more concerned about how to deal with it, not wishing it away. His approach is out of date.

  48. steve didn’t he support the governments maternity leave policy and in fact tried to introduce ammendments to extend it? Is maternity leave worthwhile?

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