Move to fling Slipper

[pim]

Who's the lady who is Deputy Speaker and who has been acting in the job? She's been doing a creditable job, it seems to me. What's more, Abbott's tactic ever since the 2010 election of "make me PM or I'll wreck the place!" hasn't worked. I know it's line ball but it's been line ball ever since the elections and still Gillard has managed to erect impressive legislative architecture which I'm not so sure that Abbott will be able to demolish should he become PM.

The Slipper thing seemed like a clever political move at the time, but it kinda goes to what Lindsey Tanner has been talking about that it's time that Labor relied a bit less on "clever political moves" and a bit more on Chifley's "light on the hill". In the end they didn't need Slipper. This is more than wisdom in hindsight. I had a bad feeling about it when after the Slipper elevation to the Speakership Abbott said in a TV interview that "Slipper is no longer the Liberal Party's problem, he's become Julia Gillard's problem." And he is, isn't he. I don't know about the sexcual harrassment stuff and in any case it's before the court which presumably will rely on something more substantial than tabloid discussion board prattle to determine a verdict. But however that case pans out, it isn't just the legalities. The fact is that, as always with this Gillard government, what always stuffs it up is the way it does politics, and the politics of it all is being fed by 200 pages of tawdry shabby SMS messages. The steamy sexual messages in themselves are the stuff of tabloid gossip, but the killer is the stuff about female genitalia. For the Liberals this is a gold mine. In fact it's the mother lode. Now they have their own Handbag Hit Squad of Julie and Sophie to make the perfect link between Slipper's misogyny and how hollow that makes Labor's Handbag Hit Squad's allegations of misogyny against Tony Abbott.

Checkmate.

No use coming back with "facts" and lengthy c & p's with "data" and "graphs". This is 100% about perceptions, which has always been what 90% of politics is about, and the Abbott Liberals always trump Gillard Labor on "perceptions". If you allow the ground to shift to how things are perceived "out there" the Liberals will win every time.

Albanese and Swan should forget about the shonky politics and clever coups. The Slipper thing reminds me that Lindsey Tanner is right. To be Labor should be derived from Chifley's "light on the hill" and leave the shonky stuff to the Libs. It's what they (the Libs) have done ever since they used shonky stuff to destroy Evatt in the 1950s right through to the present day. They do "shonky" much better than Labor. It's in their DNA.

I haven't been watching the news today so I'm not up to date. Has Gillard cut Slipper loose? I think she should. In fact I think she has no choice. They never needed him in the first place. Let him go. End the distraction.

[sonex]

As usual Julia Gillard excelled in QT. In rebutting Abbott's comments calling for the sacking of Slipper, she proffered the following.

"Ms Gillard reminded Mr Abbott the Nationals had preselected Mr Slipper as a candidate for the 1984 and 1987 elections and the Liberal Party had done so at the 1993, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010 elections.

"And across many of those preselections Mr Slipper enjoyed the personal support of the leader of the opposition," she said, quoting Mr Abbott referring to Mr Slipper as a friend and adding that Mr Abbott had attended Mr Slipper's wedding."

[pim]

There are no "friends" in politics, just vested interests.


Look, it comes down to this: Peter Slipper is not a member of the Government, he is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives and as such is an officer of the Parliament.

For good or ill, almost exactly one half of the House of Representatives have expressed no confidence in him. That's the Opposition. It's not good enough for supporters of the Government to say "who cares what the Opposition thinks?" The fact is that for good reasons or bad reasons, whether opportunistically or out of high principle, they will not accept Peter Slipper as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

There is no spin that will get around that simple fact: in a hung parliament, fully one half of the House have declared no confidence in the Speaker. That is a fact. Forget the personalities involved, forget Gillard, foget Abbott, forget about who you support and whose political carcase you'd like to see hung drawn and quartered, the fact is that the Speaker finds himself in a position where fully one half of the House he presides over have declared him not a fit and proper person for the job, and many of the other half have serious doubts about him too.

Where does that leave Peter Slipper as Speaker? What does this do to his capacity to do the job? Basically, up shit creek without a paddle.

For argument's sake, let's say that Peter Slipper is innocent of any wrong doing and has been the victim of a malicious setup. There's a theoretical possibility that the court may find that way. Who knows!

But it isn't about "theoretical possibilities" or "facts" or "setups". It's about perceptions. And there is a powerful perception which has found currency on both sides of the House that Peter Slipper is not the kind of guy who should be Speaker of the House of Representatives.

So where does that leave Peter Slipper? This person who, theoretically we have to believe is innocent and an honorable man until the court finds otherwise. What honorable option is open to this theoretically honorable man? Is there an honorable course of action for him to take?

Well, yes! It's called "resignation".

Peter Slipper's position as Speaker is impossible. If he decides to "tough it out" he'll only make it worse for himself. He has to understand that. Gillard can't sack him because he's not a member of the Government. Only Parliament can sack him. And any Speaker who finds himself/herself the subject of a motion to sack him/her in the Parliament is already damned the moment such a motion comes before the House, and should resign before the House even gets to consider such a motion.

The one decent thing left for Peter Slipper is to put the interests of the Australian Parliament ahead of his own,and to spare the Australian Parliament the grief of debating his position simply by resigning from his position.

[pim]

I just listened to Gillard's speech on the ABC news website. I think it's the best speech I've ever heard her give. What was also noteworthy was the silence on the part of the Opposition. Usually you have catcalling from Julie Bishop, sledging from Tony Abbott and vexatious points of order from Christopher Pyne. None of that today! Julie Bishop's face was the most interesting. When Gillard began speaking, Bishop began yelling across the chamber, but as Gillard detailed point by point examples of Abbott misogyny and sexism, both by word and deed, Julie Bishop fell into a stony silence. It was a commanding performance by Gillard and was a powerful exposé of hypocrisy behind Abbott's motion which failed as it deserved to fail.

But it doesn't change my earlier point that if we want some decency in this tawdry business it should come from Peter Slipper. If he really does believe in the institution of Parliament and if he respects the House he no longer is capable of presiding over with any dignity or credibility, then he should spare the House further strife and offer his resignation as Speaker. The voters of the electorate of Fisher will pass judgement on him in due course.

[Salem]

Sonex, just as Labor chose Mal Coulston time and time and time again, but late called him a LABOR RAT.

The same reason Mark Latham was preselected election after election and deemed a stable person to run for Prime Minister. Also the same reason Labor party MPs who chose Rudd over Beazley in December on 2006, worked closely with him as their opposition leader for almost a year from Dec 2006 to Nov 2007, yet despite knowing how he operates for almost an entire year, didn't realise he was a dictator and couldn't lead until after in office?

Gillard's point could have easily been demolished by all the above. She obviously didn't think too hard for a response.... FAIL

[garfield]

Well slippery petes gone, hopefully he takes the rest of the corrupt gillard government with him ;D

[Salem]

He had to don his fancy robes one more time, didn't he? Putting on his robes just to resign. And with crocodile tears. Pathetic. If I were Harry Jenkins I'd be feeling pretty pissed at being shafted for that mess. What a waste.