The ABC's election expert Anthony Green has a fantastic blog and he's gone to the trouble of explaining what the protocol is for the situation being faced by Parliament, brought on by the alleged wrongdoing of Craig Thompson.
What Happens when the Speaker Resigns?
With the problems currently being encountered by the Labor MP for Dobell Craig Thomson, speculation has begun to turn to what would happen if Thomson voluntarily or otherwise vacated his seat.
Given the government's dire polling and Dobell's vulnerable 5.1% margin, the odds would be on the Liberal Party gaining Dobell at any by-election.
Excluding Speaker Jenkins who can only vote in the event of a tie, a Liberal victory in Dobell would leave the 149 members on the floor of the House as Labor 70, Coalition 73, plus one Green, three Independents generally backing the government (Oakeshott, Wilkie, Windsor), as well as Independent Bob Katter on the cross benches and WA National MP Tony Crook who states he is not a member of the Coalition.
In those circumstances, Labor plus the Green and three generally supportive Independents could only muster 74 votes, defeated on every vote where Katter and Crook back the Coalition. But if Jenkins resigned as Speaker and a Coalition member could be convinced to take the chair (or maybe Katter or Crook), the government could then muster 75 votes to 74 on the Opposition side.
Some people seem to have assumed that Deputy Speaker Peter Slipper would automatically become Speaker. This is not the case. Mr Slipper can act for the Speaker, but someone must hold the office of Speaker for him to act in the role.
Under the standing orders of the House of Representatives, if the Speaker's position falls vacant, the House cannot transact any normal business until it elects a new Speaker.
Assuming all the above about Dobell, getting Mr Jenkins to resign would facilitate the Gillard government luring an opposition member to fill the post of Speaker, restoring the government's floor majority. But if the parliament cannot resolve a new speaker, it cannot transact business and there would be no option other than another election, unless Labor put one of its own back in the Chair and continued to try and govern.
There is precedent for a Speaker resigning in this sort of situation. In 1911 the first Labor government in NSW faced a similar problem following the resignation of two Labor MPs from parliament, potentially depriving the government of its majority. It created a major constitutional imbroglio eventually resolved by Acting Labor Premier William Holman convincing a conservative MP to take the post of Speaker.
I highly recommend the following article by Associate Professor Anne Twomey from Sydney University's Law School on the 1911 NSW Speaker crisis. One of Australia's leading constitutional law experts, Professor Twomey's article beautifully summarises how the lessons of 1911 are relevant today.
The article was published in Quadrant and can be found at http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2010/11/how-to-succeed-in-a-hung-parliament
Posted by Antony Green on August 22, 2011 at 01:56 PM in Federal Politics and Governments, New South Wales Election History
http://blogs.abc.net.au/antonygreen/2011/08/what-happens-when-a-speaker-resigns.html