Harry Jenkins (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I think that sometimes things are said in here that are just for party political advantage and that those who say them might, on reflection, regret having done so. I say to the Manager of Opposition Business, with the greatest amount of kindness I can muster: if he really has some great respect for the institution, he would understand that the standing order we are actually talking about this morning is a relic of 'fair play' by the then Labor government when the position of Second Deputy Speaker was first created. And, just to remind him—because he started to get into the internecine dealings of, especially, the New South Wales Labor Party—the main instigator of these proposals was one Leo McLeay. And Leo, in fairness to him, knew that there was a problem if there was a single vacancy for the Second Deputy Speaker—because the intention, always, was that the Second Deputy Speaker would be an opposition member under a majority government. The difficulty we had was that, when that position was first elected, of course it was a single vacancy. So, elegantly, the standing order was put in place that, in a single vacancy, an opposition member should get elected. Now, I should know this, because at the time I was the Deputy Speaker. What qualifications did I end up having to be elected Speaker? Well, Madam Speaker Burke, the greatest qualification I had was that I lost four ballots for Deputy Speaker! In a contested ballot, of course, the loser became the Second Deputy Speaker. Again, in majority government that is likely to be a non-government member. I have to say that I was a little worried in 1996 when we had only one-third of the votes because if the coalition had decided to play games then they could have got two candidates up and I would not have been—

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