Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—on behalf of the member for Cowper, I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that:

(a) prior to the passage of the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987 the Houses of the Australian Parliament had the power to expel a Senator or Member of the House of Representatives;

(b) the expulsion of a Member of this House is the most drastic of sanctions;

(c) on 11 November 1920, the Honourable Member for Kalgoorlie Hugh Mahon was expelled from this House; and

(d) the Honourable Member for Kalgoorlie is the only Member to have ever been expelled from this House;

(2) acknowledges that the Honourable Member for Kalgoorlie Hugh Mahon was expelled:

(a) by a motion brought on hastily and with limited time for debate;

(b) by a vote of the House on party lines; and

(c) without the due process and procedural fairness that such an important issue deserves; and

(3) further recognises that:

(a) it was unjust, on the limited evidence, for the institution to which Hugh Mahon had been democratically elected to reverse the decision of his constituents;

(b) the expulsion of the Honourable Member for Kalgoorlie Hugh Mahon was a misuse of the power then invested in the House; and

(c) for over a century the Mahon family has endured this injustice and it is time that the Parliament revisit the matter of the Honourable Member for Kalgoorlie, Hugh Mahon's expulsion.

There have only been two occasions in the 122-year history of the Australian parliament where the government of the day has won a seat from the opposition at a by-election. It happened earlier this year when Labor's Mary Doyle won the seat of Aston after the resignation of Alan Tudge. It also happened 103 years ago when Hugh Mahon lost the seat of Kalgoorlie after he was effectively dismissed from parliament through a disgraceful and antidemocratic process. It was odd to observe that he was expelled on 11 November 1920, exactly 40 years to the day after Ned Kelly was hanged and 55 years to the day before the dismissal of Gough Whitlam. They were two Australian parliamentarians, in any case, with Irish heritage, Mary Doyle and Hugh Mahon, and two very different sets of circumstances. I'm not expressing a partisan view when I observe that one of those sets of circumstances could be described as fair enough, with the recent by-election and in keeping with Australia's electoral system, and one which occurred to poor old Hugh Mahon 103 years ago represented a great injustice. Hugh Mahon was dismissed as a representative through a partisan process according to a vote on party lines when the conservative government of the day took issue with Mr Mahon's views in relation to the question of Irish independence—

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