Thursday 8 September 2016

A clearly delusional Kevin Hogan rises to his feet in the 44th Australian Parliament


Nationals MP for Page, Kevin Hogan on his feet in the House of Representatives on a Matter of Public Importance during the first sitting day of the 44th Parliament extolling the leadership virtues of Prime Minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull:

Deputy Speaker, I can congratulate you on your election yesterday to the office of Deputy Speaker; I am sure you will be very good—and given that I seconded the motion, I am very confident about that.
I am going to reverse today's MPI, Mr Speaker, to make it much more relevant and much more real. I am going to change the MPI and talk about the Prime Minister's excellent leadership, the excellent leadership that he has now shown for close to a year……. 

If this is the sort of backbench nonsense that will clog Hansard for the next three years we will all be very weary long before the 2019 federal election rolls around.


Barely twenty-four hours after Hogan's paean of praise, the Prime Minister’s leadership failed to keep all government MPs in the Lower House for the full sitting day – resulting in this.

Sky News, 2 September 2016:

The government has suffered an embarrassing end to the first sitting week of the 45th parliament after losing three divisions in the House of Representatives.

Due to several Coalition members leaving parliament before it had been officially adjourned, Labor seized the opportunity to win the vote on three procedural matters on the floor of parliament.

It's believed to be the first time in five decades for a majority government to lose a vote in the House of Representatives.

Since the coalition no longer had the numbers in the lower house, Labor was able to dictate what business the House of Representatives could look at, using the opportunity to move a motion to discuss its proposal for a banking royal commission.

Labor won three divisions in its bid to bring on the debate - with the final vote being tied.

Speaker Tony Smith was forced to use his casting vote - believed to be for the first time - to allow the bid for the debate to be considered.

The Australian, 2 September 2016:

MPs were recalled from airports and turned back on their drives to Sydney as the government lacked the numbers to control the parliament and scrambled to avoid a humiliating defeat on Labor’s campaign to hold a royal commission into the banks.

Scott Morrison was even interrupted live on television as staffers knocked frantically on the door to inform him he was needed for a division in the House of Representatives.

Mr Pyne said those members who had left parliament, including ministers Peter Dutton, Michael Keenan and Christian Porter, had not been given his permission to leave before the House rose.

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