Emotional Peter Slipper resigns as Speaker, Anna Burke elected unopposed as replacement
- The Australian
- October 09, 2012
Mr Slipper went into Parliament just after 7pm this evening and reported with "great sadness" he should not continue as Speaker. This came after earlier surviving a vote to remove him as Speaker by one vote.
A highly emotional Speaker, in terms, said he was tendering his resignation to the Governor-General.
A highly emotional Speaker, in terms, said he was tendering his resignation to the Governor-General.
Mr Slipper said that despite the one-vote victory fending off his removal earlier this afternoon he deemed it best to resign.
Labor's Anna Burke has been elected unopposed as Speaker to replace Peter Slipper.
The Victorian MP has served as acting Speaker since May when Mr Slipper was persuaded to step aside over sexual harassment allegations.
Ms Burke becomes the second woman to hold the position of Speaker after Labor's Joan Child in the 1980s during the Hawke government.
Addressing the House this evening, Mr Slipper expressed great sadness and frustration at an inability to introduce the Parliamentary reforms he wanted.
"The importance of the role Speaker in the House of Representatives is far greater than my own role," Mr Slipper said.
Ever since the attempts to remove Mr Slipper over denigrating remarks he made about women in texts released in a court case were defeated by the Government there have been negotiations to transfer Mr Slipper out of the job.
The Speaker issued an apology for his remarks about women earlier this evening, intensifying speculation that he would resign.
With Mr Slipper being replaced directly by Ms Burke, the Labor Government is back to a majority of one on the floor of Parliament, depending once again on Labor turned independent MP, Craig Thomson.
Mr Slipper resigned from the LNP when he defected to take the job of Speaker and will remain as an Independent MP.
Tony Abbott said Mr Slipper's decision to resign as Speaker had "shown that in this important respect he has good judgment".
"While it is obvious from the events earlier today that members on this side of the House and at least one crossbencher did not want the Speaker to continue in his role, tonight I have to say that we all feel for him as a human being," the Opposition Leader said.
"He has obviously been through a very difficult period, so we do feel for him as a human being, while we think that he has done the right and honourable thing by resigning from his high office."
Julia Gillard said despite what people would say about Mr Slipper, "at a human level, each of us would wish the best for him and his family at what is clearly a distressing and very pressurised time".
"I think the words he spoke about his family members, his wife, his children, his former wife, his extended family will stay will us for a long time and we would all recognise that there is a group of human beings well beyond this place who are feeling some pain and distress tonight," the Prime Minister said.
The Labor caucus will meet tonight to determine a replacement Speaker for Mr Slipper.
There had been speculation that NSW independent Rob Oakeshott would nominate for the position but his office ruled that out when contacted by The Australian.
"I acknowledge the difficult but sound decision of Mr Peter Slipper to resign as Speaker of the House. I confirm that I have spoken personally with Mr Slipper, and in my view he has made the correct decision," Mr Oakeshott said in a statement.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie said that Mr Slipper had "done the right thing" by resigning, saying the substance of the text messages he sent to Mr Ashby meant his position had become untenable.
But he let fly at the government, saying Mr Slipper had only been elevated in order to allow Julia Gillard to drop her commitment to proceed with poker machine reform.
"The situation was seriously diminishing the Office of Speaker and dragging down the reputation of the Parliament more broadly," Mr Wilkie said.
"The whole sorry saga reflects poorly on the Government. It only elevated Peter Slipper to the Speaker's chair to sideline me and renege on the promise to implement meaningful poker machine reform. The damage the episode has done to the Government is entirely of its own making."
Mr Wilkie also said he was "disappointed" the parliament voted in support of Mr Slipper before he announced his decision to step down.
NSW independent MP Tony Windsor released a short statement tonight saying that he acknowledged the "difficult but sound" decision of Mr Slipper.
"I confirm that I have spoken personally with Mr Slipper, and in my view he has made the correct decision," Mr Windsor said.
Greens leader Christine Milne said she appreciated Mr Slipper's decision to put the interests of the Parliament first and wished Ms Burke well.
"I hope that, now he has decided to step down from the Speakership after apologising for his offensive text messages, this episode can be put behind us and the parliament can once again focus on the important business that the people of Australia sent us here to do," Ms Milne said.
"I wish the new Speaker, Anna Burke, every success in the role and hope that the recent experience causes all Members of Parliament to take the opportunity to renew a commitment to better standards of language and behaviour, consistent with what the Australian community expects of its elected representatives."
Mr Slipper's apology for offensive text messages came in a statement earlier this evening in which he said the texts to former staffer James Ashby, which make derogatory references about women, could not be excused.
However, he said the messages, which emerged in evidence to the Federal Court, had not been intended for public release.
"It was intended at the time that the text messages be private between Mr Ashby and me," Mr Slipper said.
"Many of the messages occurred before I became Speaker and before Mr Ashby commenced work in my office.
"I understand why people, particularly women, would be offended by these statements and I unreservedly apologise for them."
This afternoon, Ms Gillard rebuffed a Coalition motion to remove Mr Slipper - her appointed candidate as Speaker - from his post.
Labor, with the help of Greens MP Adam Bandt and independents Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott, defeated the motion by a margin of just one vote.
Mr Wilkie and Western Australia National Tony Crook sided with the Coalition in the vote, which was defeated 69 votes to 70.
Mr Abbott moved the motion at the beginning of question time, declaring Mr Slipper's position untenable following the emergence of the text messages containing "gross references to female genitalia".
"It is absolutely crystal clear that this Speaker is no longer a fit and proper person to uphold the dignity of this parliament and is no longer a fit and proper person to uphold and protect the standing orders of this house," Mr Abbott told the parliament.
Ms Gillard responded with a blistering personal attack on Mr Abbott, branding him a sexist hypocrite.
"I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man," Ms Gillard said.
"The Leader of the Opposition says that people who hold sexist views and who are misogynist are not appropriate for high office.
"Well I hope the Leader of the Opposition has got a piece of paper and is writing out his resignation."
Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop told the parliament that Mr Slipper could no longer continue in the Speaker's role.
"How the women in this House are expected to show respect to the Speaker when we are now aware of the views that he holds of women is beyond comprehension," she said.
But Labor MP Daryl Melham, who nominated Mr Slipper for the Speaker's role, said the parliament should not remove him until the Federal Court had decided the claim against him.
He said Mr Abbott's motion should be set aside, and revisited, if necessary, once the court had ruled.
Ms Gillard said she was personally offended when, as health minister, Mr Abbott said abortion was the "easy way out", and when he raised her unmarried status and when he stood beside the "Ditch the Witch" placards at anti-carbon tax rallies.
In demanding the Speaker be stood down, Mr Abbott used similar language to broadcaster Alan Jones, who said Ms Gillard's father had "died of shame".
"Should she rise in this place now to try and defend the Speaker, to try and say that she retains confidence in this Speaker, she will shame this parliament again," he said.
"And every day the Prime Minister stands in this parliament to defend this Speaker will be another day of shame for this parliament, another day of shame for a government which should already have died of shame."
Mr Gillard hit back. "The government is not dying of shame. My father did not die of shame," she said.
"What the Leader of the Opposition should be ashamed of is of his performance in this parliament and the sexism which he brings with it."
Ms Gillard condemned the content of the text messages between Mr Slipper and Mr Ashby but refused to withdraw her support for the Speaker while court action was ongoing.
"I don't believe that it is appropriate for this parliament to canvass in a fulsome way, this material which is in evidence in a case where the judge has reserved his decision," Ms Gillard said.
Mr Abbott said Mr Slipper was not disqualified from his position by the fact of the legal action against him, but by the facts that continued to emerge in the course of the case.
"At the risk of dismaying this chamber, at the risk of dismaying the public, I allude, and I only allude, to the gross references to female genitalia which are contained in the uncontradicted, undenied evidence before the court, about the conduct of this Speaker," he said.
Mr Abbott said Mr Slipper appeared to be addicted to "vile anatomical references", and "should be gone today".
He said it wasn't just the Speaker who had failed the character test, but also the Prime Minister, who engineered the "squalid deal" to put him in place.
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