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New speaker in Australian parliament strengthens Labor's grip on office
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| Contributor | New Jerusalem |
| Last Edited | New Jerusalem Nov 24, 2011 09:08am |
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| Category | News |
| Author | The Guardian |
| Media | Newspaper - Guardian |
| News Date | Thursday, November 24, 2011 03:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Australia's parliament has elected an opposition MP as its new lower house speaker, an unprecedented move that strengthens Julia Gillard's tenuous grip on power as prime minister.
The elevation of Peter Slipper follows the surprise resignation as speaker on Thursday of Harry Jenkins, a member of Gillard's Labor party, on parliament's last sitting day of the year.
The speaker usually only votes to break a tie, so the change effectively gives the centre-left government, which nearly lost power in last year's elections, an additional vote in House of Representatives on most legislation.
Slipper defied his own opposition Liberal party by accepting the speaker's job. Gillard denied the change was planned in advance by her party.
Labor has 76 seats in the 150-seat chamber including three independents and a Greens party MP.
But with Jenkins in the speaker's chair Gillard had only been able to rely on the support of 75 MPs in most votes.
The conservative opposition had been able to muster up to 74 votes but now can only hope for 73 unless a vote is tied.
Even then Slipper is unlikely to show loyalty to the Liberal party, which he defied by accepting the government's nomination as speaker.
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