AN unseemly brawl has broken out in the Coalition over the Speakership and Deputy Speakership of the House of Representatives.
The normal pattern for the Coalition when in Government has been for the Liberals to vote for contenders among Liberals for the Speakership and for the Liberals to take that position. The Nationals then vote among themselves for the deputy Speakership and take that position. When the full House meets the Colation puts up only one candidate for each position (the Liberal and National who won the ballots in their party rooms) and they get the positions because the Coalition together has more votes on the floor of the House than Labor.
But these are not normal times and in any event politics is often a numbers game. The Nationals took a pasting at the election, losing three members. Prime Minister John Howard took a ministry away from them. Then the Liberal Party whip announced that members of either party could nominate for either position of Speaker or Deputy Speaker. On raw numbers that would mean that the Liberals would get both positions, because there are many more Liberals than Nationals and the ballot for each position is run exhaustively until a candidate has an absolute majority.
The Prime Minister’s office confirmed the different method of voting this time around. But there was no full explanation as to why. On one hand it might have been a deliberate move to further downgrade the Nationals’ position because of their electoral losses. On the other hand, it might have been a too-clever-by-half ploy by the Prime Minister to bolster the chances of the existing Speaker, Neil Andrew, in a ballot against three other Liberal challengers.
In a straight race among Liberals, Mr Andrew would have a tough time against challengers David Hawker of Victoria, former Minister David Jull and former Minister and Queenslander Alex Somlyay. Mr Somlyay has little chance, but Mr Hawker, campaigning on family-friendly sitting hours and Mr Jull (who was seen to be hard-done-by in the expenses scandal fall-out last Parliament) have reasonable prospects. Their good prospects, however, have been at least partially ill-gotten on the back of ill-feeling towards Mr Andrew for – in the eyes of some Liberals — being too hard on his own members and too soft on Labor. In other words, being fair. Mr Andrew named and suspended from the House some Government Ministers and Members – very rare in Australian parliamentary standards.
If the Nationals are brought into the vote for the Speakership, they are more likely to support Mr Andrew as the existing Speaker. This would give him the edge over the other three contestants. It would then be a question of whether a defeated candidate for the Speakership would stand for the Deputy Speakership or allow the Nationals to pick it up by default.
In a secret ballot open to both parties for both positions, the authority of the Prime Minister is going to be tested. Mr Howard had remained silent to date, but Mr Andrew has made it clear that Mr Howard is supporting him. Unless Mr Andrew gets the Speakership and the Nationals Ian Causley gets the Deputy Speakership it would indicate that the Prime Minister does not always get his way in the party room.
It seems that while he has been away in Indonesia, no-one in the Liberal Party has done the leg work with the Nationals to explain the reasons for the joint ballot – because the Nationals are kicking up a public fuss.
It does not look like a good start to the new Parliament for the Coalition, but perhaps they can afford the public brawl while the Opposition is still finding its feet.