Resources, News & Commentary from Malcolm Farnsworth
Senator Bob Brown has resigned as leader of the Australian Greens.
Brown’s surprise decision was announced at a party meeeting in Canberra. Senator Christine Milne was immediately elected as the new leader.
Later in the day, Melbourne MP Adam Bandt was elected deputy leader.
Brown said he would leave the Senate later in the year when the Tasmanian Greens division has finalised pre-selections. [Read more...]
The Liberal Party’s Western Australian Senator Judith Adams has died, aged 68.
Senator Adams reportedly died as a result of breast cancer.
She was in her second term in the Senate, having been first elected in the 2004 federal election. Her term commenced on July 1, 2005.
A former nurse and farmer, Senator Adams was Deputy Opposition Whip and had been Temporary Chair of Committees since July last year.
According to her personal website, “Judith was born in Picton, New Zealand and after completing her secondary education trained as a general nurse, a midwife and gained a Diploma in Operating Theatre Nursing.
“In 1963 Judith joined the NZ Territorial Army as a Nursing Sister, obtaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant and in 1967 was appointed to the NZ Surgical Team in Vietnam as a civilian nurse auspiced under the Columbo Plan. [Read more...]
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced that former NSW Premier Bob Carr is to enter the Senate and become Foreign Minister.
After several days of uncertainty and denials, the announcement came as a surprise today when Gillard announced the ministerial reshuffle arising from the resignation of Kevin Rudd and his failed leadership challenge.
Carr will fill the casual Senate vacancy created by the resignation of Mark Arbib. [Read more...]
This is the text of a speech in the Matters of Public Interest debate by Victorian Liberal Senator Michael Ronaldson.
The speech was given at 1pm on June 15, 2011.
The transcript is taken from Hansard.
At the heart of this Gillard Labor government lies the truth that it is an illegitimate government. The government is not only illegitimate but also hopelessly divided. Only today we read how Labor backbenchers are at war with each other about policy decisions taken by their own party. It is a tale of zombies and daleks. The members—described by one of their own as ‘zombies’—are generally too frightened to speak out. The factional warlords—the ‘daleks’, according to one past leader—are angry at their loss of power and influence.
Today’s media reports describe a vicious exchange in yesterday’s caucus meeting between a backbencher from the New South Wales Central Coast, the member for Dobell, Mr Craig Thomson, and his New South Wales Labor colleague Senator Doug Cameron.
Paul Keating famously declared that where New South Wales Labor goes, so too goes the nation. This is indeed a troubling omen for our nation. Today I wish to discuss renewed allegations against the said Mr Thomson—all of which are on the public record. Mr Thomson’s actions go to the heart of this government’s legitimacy. Mr Thomson is now into his second term as a member of the House of Representatives. Nevertheless, serious concerns remain about Mr Thomson’s past as a union heavy in the Health Services Union. There are serious allegations including allegations of fraud and electoral misconduct. It is time to end Labor’s deafening silence concerning these very serious allegations. Put simply, it is time for the Prime Minister to show leadership. Mr Thomson is not fit to be a member of parliament and he should be stood down immediately. Of course, the Prime Minister knows this. In normal circumstances the member for Dobell would not be allowed to continue. But, in the so-called ‘new paradigm’ where the government has only a wafer-thin majority, the Prime Minister lacks the courage and the leadership authority to deal with the member for Dobell appropriately. [Read more...]
The AEC has declared the Senate result in Tasmania. The ALP has won 3 places, the Liberals 2 and the Greens 1.
AEC State Manager for Tasmania, Marie Neilson, said that the Senate count had involved the keying of votes into a computerised system, and today an automated process was used to distribute preferences and determine the six elected candidates. “As with all aspects of the count, the final process undertaken today was able to be observed by scrutineers representing candidates.”
The successful candidates for the 6 Tasmanian Senate vacancies, in order of their election are:
The Federal Opposition has itemised what is calls abuse of process, procedure and convention in the Senate since July 1, the date on which the coalition government assumed a one-seat majority in the upper house.
The ALP leader in the Senate, Chris Evans, has itemised a list of government actions concerning Question Time, censure motions, guillotines, gags and Senate Committees.
The Opposition argues these actions constitute “democratic abuses”.
This is the text of a media statement Senator Chris Evans, the ALP leader in the Senate.
John Howard’s Senate Abuses – Process, Procedure and Convention – the Story Since 1 July
Since gaining senate control, the Howard Government has rolled out what has become a very long list of democratic abuses. [Read more...]
The four Greens senators say they will put the Howard Government’s one-seat majority to the test this week.
The Greeens will nominate Kerry Nettle for Senate President and Christine Milne for Deputy President, as well as moving for David Hicks to be returned from Guantanamo Bay. [Read more...]
Following the controversy in the Victorian Parliament over Labor MP Kirstie Marshall breast-feeding her baby in the chamber, the Australian Democrats have proposed changes to the Standing Orders in the Senate.
This is the text of a media release by Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, Australian Democrats spokesperson for Work and Family.
Standing Orders may allow breastfeeding in the Senate
Breastfeeding will be allowed in the Australian Senate if a Procedure Committee recommendation, initiated by the Australian Democrats, is adopted by the Senate when it returns this month.
The Procedure Committee considered this change after Senator Natasha Stott Despoja gave notice of a motion to change the Standing Orders.
Senator Stott Despoja’s motion was lodged on March 19 and the proposal to change Standing Order 175 subsequently referred to the President on March 24. [Read more...]
The former leader of the Australian Democrats, Senator Meg Lees, is embroiled in a bitter dispute over the leadership of Natasha Stott Despoja that threatens to split the party and hand the Howard Government the chance of passing its contentious privatisation of Telstra legislation.
At a meeting of the Australian Democrats’ National Management Committee on June 5, a motion was carried requesting Lees attend a meeting of the National Executive on June 22-23 to “address issues of her comments on the sale of Telstra and perceptions of disunity in the Party”. Another motion described “perceptions of disunity and unreliability” in relation to comments Lees made about Telstra. [Read more...]
John Howard yesterday indicated that the government has decided to abandon its previous policy of not accepting the vote of renegade Labor Senator Mal Colston.
Colston’s support is crucial if the government is to get its GST legislation through the Senate by the end of next June.
Colston defected from the Labor Party in 1996. He had been denied ALP nomination for Deputy President of the Senate. Following his resignation from the ALP, he was elected Deputy President with the support of the coalition parties. Later, he was forced to resign the position after allegations of irregularities in his travel expenses and other allowances.
The government at that stage had 37 senators, 2 short of the majority needed to pass legislation. Colston and Tasmanian independent Senator Brian Harradine were enough to give the government a Senate majority. This support was crucial on legislation such as the Wik amendments in July 1998. Similarly, Colston’s opposition to the sale of the remaining two-thirds of Telstra destroyed that piece of legislation.
Embarrassment arising from the fraud charges laid against Colston led to Howard announcing that the government would not accept Colston’s vote in Senate divisions. However, an abstention by Colston assisted the government because it effectively robbed the ALP of one of its original votes.
Whilst the Australian Democrats have won the balance of power in the Senate, this does not occur until July 1, 1999. The 6-year terms of Senators are fixed by the Constitution.
Thus, Colston and Harradine remain the crucial players in the Senate for the next eight and a half months. It is a measure of the government’s determination to get its taxation package through the Senate that the Prime Minister has announced the reversal of its stance this early in proceedings. Parliament is not due to meet for the first time since the election until November 10.
Colston’s personal history is one that makes him a particularly hated figure within the ALP. Senator Robert Ray, for example, is reputed to have described Colston as a “venal prick”.
Colston’s first came to public notice in 1975 during the term of the Whitlam Labor Government. A Queensland Labor Senator, Bert Milliner, had died and Colston was the ALP’s nominee to replace him in the Senate. Under Section 15 of the Constitution, as it existed at the time, casual senate vacancies were by convention filled by nominees from the same party. The appointment is made by the relevant State Parliament.
The then Premier of Queensland, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, refused to accept an ALP nomination and appointed Albert Patrick Field to the vacancy. Field was dedicated in his opposition to the Whitlam Government. Together with a similar flouting of convetion by the NSW government, the appointment led directly to the blocking of supply in the Senate on this day 23 years ago and the dismissal of the Whitlam Government by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, on November 11, 1975.
In 1977, Prime Minister Fraser proposed a referendum to ensure that State Parliaments were obliged to fill casual senate vacancies with persons from the same party as the departed senator. The referendum was supported by the ALP and passed by the people.
Colston was elected to the Senate at the double dissolution that followed the dismissal and has been a senator ever since. In Labor parlance, he is a “rat”. Given his minor, but symbolic, role in the events of 1975, it is particularly galling for the ALP to see him defect over twenty years later. Many would regard his actions as a betrayal of the party that nurtured him and a betrayal of the important principles that were defended in those eventful Whitlam years.
