In which Liberal & Nationals MPs behaved badly in the Australian House of Representatives over three consecutive days....

 

Presumably at the direction of the Coalition Leader or the manager of Opposition business in the House at approximately 5:40pm on Tuesday 28 March 2023 Liberal and Nationals MPs began leaving the Chamber to avoid participating in one of the votes conducted during the passage of the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Income Management Reform) Bill 2023.

During this piece of self-indulgent performative politics, Liberal MP for Wannon & former Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan, Liberal MP for Hume & former Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor, Liberal MP for Canning & former Assist. Minister for Defence Andrew Hastie, Liberal-National MP for Wide Bay & former Deputy-Speaker Llew O’Brien, Liberal MP for Flinders Zoe McKenzie, Liberal-National MP Ted O’Brien and, Nationals MP for Nicholls Sam Birrell, demonstrated disrespectful, juvenile, boorish and dangerous behaviour…..

Clips of the incident from yesterday, where Coalition members pushed their way our of the House of Reps after the speaker called for the doors to be locked (with about 6 minutes of inconsequential division time cut from the middle). pic.twitter.com/zfmEB3JRa0

— Michael Mazengarb (@MichaelM_ACT) March 28, 2023

House of Representatives Hansard, Tuesday 28 March 2023 at 5:41pm, excerpt:

The SPEAKER (17:41): Before we go any further, I wish to 

call the Leader of the House, and I want absolute

silence for this.

Mr BURKE (Watson—Minister for Employment and  Workplace Relations, Minister for the Arts and Leader of the House) (17:41): I am not in a position to name individual members of parliament, but we as a House cannot be in a situation—out of respect for the staff who work in this building—where, when you ask people to lock the doors, they have members of parliament physically pushing past them to get out of the room. There are standing orders that are quite specific in terms of people's obligation. Once you say, 'Lock the doors,' at that moment people have to move to the seats and pick a side or do as some members did, quite appropriately, and take the advisers' boxes.

Mr Speaker, regardless of Practice and standing orders, we cannot be in a position, as a House, where people are using their physical size to push past the members of staff after you have said, 'Lock the doors.' It would be

appreciated if you could review the video. It would also be appreciated if the members involved reported directly to you so that you can work out what the appropriate action is.

The SPEAKER (17:42): I shall be taking the issue very seriously. I will report back to the House.

And all seven were forced to publicly apologise on the floor of the House…...

https://youtu.be/q_8SWGJ5A0o?t=114

House of Representatives, Hansard, Wednesday 29 March 2023 at 9:01am, excerpt:

STATEMENT BY THE SPEAKER

Parliamentary Standards

The SPEAKER (09:01): Before we proceed with business today, I want to address a very serious and grave incident that occurred during a division yesterday afternoon. I thank the Leader of the House for raising this incident with me at the time. After the bells had been rung, I ordered that the doors be locked. After I gave this order, I am aware that a number of members exited the chamber while one of the attendants was attempting to close and lock the door to the opposition lobby, as directed.

As all members are aware, under standing order 129 after the Speaker orders the doors to be locked no member may enter or leave the chamber until after the division. It does not matter whether the doors have been able to be fully closed, the point at which the order is given from the chair is the point at which no member is allowed to enter or leave the chamber.

The most serious aspect of this incident is that members physically pushed their way past the attendant to get out of the chamber, resulting in the attendant getting hit in the doorframe and hurting their arm. I am particularly disgusted by this behaviour, and I will not tolerate it. For a staff member of this place to be treated in this way when they are simply doing their job is disrespectful and a very serious matter.

I have spoken to the parliamentary staff who were involved or who observed the incident and have reviewed a written report from them. I want to make it clear that I am committed to ensuring that this building and this chamber are safe and respectful places of work for all. No staff member should be hurt in the course of doing their work in service of this House. We all know that members are busy. However, I am sure we would all agree that no member's time is worth more than a staff member's safety.

In light of this issue and other recent issues raised with me, I will be writing to all members with a review to reinforce this and to ensure that members are in no doubt as to their obligations to treat this chamber and parliamentary staff with respect.

The Australian people expect members to maintain the highest of standards in terms of conduct and behaviour. We have been reminded of this in Set the standard: Report on the independent review into commonwealth parliamentary workplaces. For all members and staff, I remind them that the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, PWSS, supports people affected by serious incidents or misconduct in the parliamentary workplace. This service is available at all hours.

I am now going to give indulgence to members who left the chamber following my order to lock the doors to apologise to the House for their actions.

Mr TEHAN (Wannon) (09:04): Speaker, I left the House as you were saying close the doors, and I apologise for my conduct.

Mr TAYLOR (Hume) (09:04): I apologise to the House, Speaker, for leaving the house after your directions were given.

Mr LLEW O'BRIEN (Wide Bay) (09:04): Mr Speaker, I unreservedly apologise to the House and yourself for leaving after your direction yesterday. I also apologise to the staff, if they were involved in this. Our staff here in the chamber do an incredible job, and one of them is not crowd control. I apologise again for that.

Mr TED O'BRIEN (Fairfax) (09:04): Mr Speaker, I too unreservedly apologise to the House.

Ms McKENZIE (Flinders) (09:05): I apologise to the House, Mr Speaker, for seeking to leave after the Speaker had ordered that the doors be closed. I deeply regret and apologise for any impact caused to the staff member involved.

Mr BIRRELL (Nicholls—Deputy Nationals Whip) (09:05): Mr Speaker, I sought to leave the House after your

order and I unreservedly apologise to you and to the House for that. I have offered an apology to the attendant who was on the door at the time.

Mr HASTIE (Canning) (09:05): Mr Speaker, I also apologise unreservedly to you and to the House for

attempting to leave after the doors were to be locked. I particularly regret any issues with the staff member involved and I apologise to her unreservedly.

It should be noted that only Ms. McKenzie and Messrs. Birrell, L. O’Brien & Hastie offered apologies to the staff. Messrs. Tehan, Taylor & E. O’Brien were markedly less gracious in their apologies.

Let's not bother to go to the office today....

Liberal and Nationals MPs, not content with the performative display on Tuesday 28th decided to repeat their dummy spit for House of Representative cameras two days later.

This is a view of the House as The Speaker Milton Dick enters at 8:59am on Thursday 30 March 2023. The first item of business for the day was the second reading of the bill "Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023".

View of near empty Opposition benches at 9:02am as the Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus begins his second reading speech at 9:02am.

Another view of the House during the Attorney-General's second reading speech showing the Government benches on the near and far right of the image. The near left being sparsely populated Opposition benches (Liberals & Nationals) and far left Independents & minor parties benches. 

View of the House showing Labor, the cross benches and the visitors gallery clapping as the bill was listed as read and mostly silent members of the Opposition immediately leaving the Chamber at 9:21am.

It would appear that the Liberal MPs who did the right thing and were in their seats for the entire second reading process were predominately Opposition backbenchers:

Member for Longman

Member for Monash

Member for Sturt

Member for Forde

Member for Fisher.

They were in the company of three other Liberal MPs - one I took to be the Member for Bradfield, another the Member for Berowra and the third I could not identify.

One could be excused for suspecting that the handful of other Liberal and Nationals MPs who were in the Chamber by the end of the bill's second reading might have belatedly turned up just to avoid any accusation of non-attendance.

Aston Federal By-election 1 April 2023: the vote count commenced at 6:30pm and it was all over for the Liberal Party by around 8:17pm

Around 1 hour and 47 minutes into the Australian Electoral Commission vote count on Saturday 1 April 2023, elections analyst Antony Green and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation confidently predicted that Labor had won the Aston federal by-election with a projected 53.4 per cent of the votes and a +9 per cent swing.

This is the first time a federal government of any stripe has taken an Opposition seat in a by-election in over 100 years.

Australian Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has phoned Aston Labor candidate Mary Doyle and congratulated her on the historic win. 

Note: This aforementioned figures do not represent the final vote count on the night and the count will commence again on Sunday and continue until all postal votes are counted. This will not affect the result. Labor has won.

Cartoons of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

Peter Broelmann

Rod Emmerson

Matt Golding

 

North Coast Voices will not be posting from Tuesday 28 to

 Friday 31 March 2023.

Apologies to our readers.

Will the incoming Minns Labor Government fix the unholy mess that the outgoing Perrottet Coalition Government made of NSW planning & environmental laws in NSW?

 

The former Baird, Berejiklian and Perrottet coalition governments deliberately put a wrecking ball through NSW planning and environmental law for almost nine years.

The burning question is; 'Will the new Labor state premier, his cabinet and, specifically those he chooses as his ministers for planning and environment, walk back the legislative and regulatory power grab which leaves much of regional New South Wales vulnerable to exploitation?'

This opinion piece by Lindy Smith, President of the Tweed District Residents and Ratepayers Association (TDRRA) in the Echo, 21 March 2023, reflects similar concerns expressed by residents & ratepayers across the seven local government areas of the Northern Rivers region:

 The NSW Planning Rezoning Pathways Program was released the day before caretaker period started for the NSW government on 3 March.

This will service the agendas of developers and land bankers which is very much alive in the Tweed Shire, particularly the Cudgen Plateau, State Significant Farmlands (SSF). Under the guise of the need for housing (which we all agree is needed) there continues to be a failure to acknowledge the herd of elephants in the room – that any new house can be built and purchased for Short Term Holiday Letting (STHL) under the Governments changes to the NSW Environmental Planning & Assessment (EP&A) Act.

Does not increase housing supply

This means that there is no guaranteed actual quantitative increase in the housing supply. While the government’s focus has been driving population growth it has seriously failed in its upkeep of social and affordable housing. In fact they have been selling off such sites.

The questions that the NSW government fails to address are:

What quantity of social housing is to be part of the Program?

What is affordable housing, and where are the plans and mechanisms to provide them? How they will be protected as affordable housing into perpetuity, rather than reentering the private market after ten years?

Undermining local councils

The Planning Rezoning Pathways Program enables the overriding of much statutory investment and work that has been undertaken by local councils and communities. Many local councils and community groups have spent significant time and energy developing locally appropriate planning tools and long-term strategic planning utilising local knowledge which is key to the sustainability and liveability of their communities.

The NSW coalition government swept into power 2011 on the back of the then-controversial Part3A assessment system, promising to give planning powers back to local communities. What we have instead been dealt with is the repeated undermining of the NSW EP&A Act and the NSW state taking over so much more of local communities planning controls.

No public consultation

Further, under the former Premier and former Deputy Premier of NSW development of RegionalEconomic Development Strategies was undertaken with zero public consultation, nor any transparency. These documents only recently came to light in the public arena.

Just two days before the caretaker period the NSW Government then released its program to rezone our Crown lands for development with zero public consultation, nor any process to turn over our Crown land to development.

The mismanagement of our Crown land is well documented with the damming evidence to the Crown lands inquiry and the damming findings of the Auditor-General Report into the Sale and Lease of Crown Lands….

Labor has won the state general election of 25 March 2923 and will form government for the term of the 58th NSW Parliament

 

The mainstream media hyped 'close' NSW state general election that wasn't.....

At approx. 7:55pm on Saturday 25 March 2023 just one hour and twenty-five minutes into the official NSW Electoral Commission count of est. 2,669,688 formal ballot papers on the night and with less than 13 per cent of all votes counted, elections analyst Antony Green called the general election for the Australian Labor Party (NSW Division) on the national public broadcaster, the ABC. 

Labor MLA for Kogarah, Christopher John "Chris" Minns is now 47th Premier-elect of New South Wales and is expected to lead a government of between 47 to 50 members sitting in the 93 member Legislative Assembly. 

At around 10:20pm on the night the Liberal MP for Epping and current Premier Dominic Francis "Dom" Perrottet conceded defeat on behalf of the Coalition, being the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division) and National Party of Australia (NSW Division). Mr. Perrottet had been the state premier for less than 18 months.

The official ballot paper count continues on Monday 27 March and details can be found at 

https://elections.nsw.gov.au/elections/state-government-elections/2023-state-general-election.  

The initial formal first preference ballot count on the night of 25 March indicates that Labor's Janelle Saffin has retained the seat of Lismore.  Nationals' Geoff Provest is expected to retain Tweed and The Green's Tamara Smith is also expected to retain Ballina, with Nationals' Richie Williamson is expected to gain Clarence after retirement of the previous incumbent, the National's Chris Gulaptis.

To recap: the Labor Party now governs at federal level and in every state & territory across Australia, with the exception of Tasmania where the Liberal Party still governs.

IMAGE: via @MColvinMcKenzie

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gives update on Indigenous Voice and referendum wording

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dwC0xmBCKA&t=16s