Phillip Coorey August 22, 2011
May be asked to step down ... Speaker Harry Jenkins.
LABOR strategists are canvassing the prospect of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Harry Jenkins, being asked to step down and join the backbench should Craig Thomson lose his seat over the credit card fraud allegations.
Although Mr Thomson has not been charged with anything, Labor strategists are thinking of ways to prolong the government should it lose a precious seat.
There is growing anger in the ALP towards Mr Thomson for telling his colleagues before the last election that the allegations about credit card misuse, published by the Herald in 2009, were untrue and that he was suing Fairfax Media. Mr Thomson withdrew that action in April and there is fresh anger from colleagues because he had told people he won the case. ''He looked me in the eye and told me he won,'' a senior MP said yesterday.
It has been widely reported that the ALP made a significant contribution to Mr Thomson's legal costs, although the total amount remains unclear. If it had not, Mr Thomson would be bankrupt and would have had to leave Parliament. His marginal central coast seat of Dobell would most likely have fallen to the Coalition at a byelection.
Polling of the seat by the veteran political pollster John Scales, of JWS research, shows the Coalition leading Labor by 60 per cent to 40 per cent on a two-party-preferred basis. Labor's primary vote in Dobell is mired at 26 per cent.
If Mr Thomson were charged and convicted, he would have to leave and there would be a byelection.
Labor's numbers, with the support of the Greens and independents would be 75 seats, including Mr Jenkins.
The Coalition would have 73, plus there would be Bob Katter and Tony Crook. If Mr Jenkins moved to the backbench, the Deputy Speaker and Liberal MP, Peter Slipper, would become Speaker. This would give the Labor-minority government 75 seats on the floor, the Coalition 72, plus Mr Katter and Mr Crook.
The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, said yesterday Mr Thomson should be sacked as the chairman of the House of Representatives economics committee, which will question the Reserve Bank governor, Glenn Stevens, on Friday.
''It's very hard for someone who can't answer questions about his own credit card to credibly ask questions of the governor of the Reserve Bank about the nation's credit cards,'' Mr Abbott said.
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