Bronwyn Bishop resigns: Who will be the next Speaker of the House?

August 03, 2015 1:32PM

Bishop's resignation 'too late': Liberal MPs Play video

• Bishop's resignation 'too late': Liberal MPs

SALARY aside, it’s not a particularly alluring “position vacant” advertisement.

WANTED: New Speaker of the House of Representatives

WOULD SUIT: Someone unlikely to be made a minister, or unlikely to want to be a minister.

QUALIFICATIONS: A thorough knowledge of the mechanisms and procedures of the House of Representatives, and a keen appreciation of which side your bread is buttered.

DUTIES: Managing the Department of the House of Representatives and conducting proceedings of the House in a manner which would allow for full and free debate as long as it suited the Government, which could use its numbers to ignore whatever you have to say.

CAREER PROSPECTS: Not red hot given recent history, which has seen the forced resignation of two Speakers. But if it all goes well there could be a comfy diplomatic posting on the horizon.

REMUNERATION: Salary around $340,000 plus expenses (though not as good as they were three weeks ago)

CONTACT: Office of the Prime Minister

There will be people contacting Prime Minister Tony Abbott by one route or another to express an interest in the job, one of the plums of the parliamentary pudding that was held until yesterday by Bronwyn Bishop.

One candidate could be Deputy Speaker Bruce Scott, a Queensland rural Nationals MP who announced today he would retire at the election scheduled for late next year.

Usually the dominant Coalition party, the Liberals, would want one of their own in the job but there is a precedent. Former Nationals leader Ian Sinclair was made Speaker for his final months in Parliament, serving from March to November, 1998.

It was an appropriate farewell for a distinguished MP and the same might apply to Mr Scott.

The Prime Minister might be interested in finding a woman to succeed a woman. Mrs Bishop was the third woman in the Speaker’s chair and the first Liberal. Mr Abbott, who has just two women in cabinet, might look for another to put in this important job.

Candidates might include hardworking Queenslander Jane Prentice, although she was a public critic of Mr Abbott’s leadership back in February and this might not be seen as recommending her for the post.

Or perhaps it will be Sharman Stone, a former minister and a rural MP from outside the Sydney/Melbourne axis. However, she has shown an independent streak which might not be appreciated by some.

The usual practice is to canvas the experienced men who might take on the job, and there are a couple.

Philip Ruddock is Father of the House (its longest serving member) and has the respect of his colleagues. In a parliamentary career which began in 1973, he has a fair idea of how the place works — and how it should work.

One drawback to his candidacy is that Mr Abbott sacked Mr Ruddock as Government Whip earlier this year. This was seen as punishment for not protecting Mr Abbott against the mounting discontent which almost saw the Prime Minister forced into a leadership ballot. This could mean Mr Ruddock’s Speakership prospects are not golden.

Another possibility is Russell Broadbent, a tough fighter who has won, lost and regained Victorian seats since 1990. He had been considered a bit went on asylum seekers but recently made clear his support for Government policy.

There will be other possible and probable. It’s unfortunate none of them will resemble the most ferocious holder of the job, the Menzies appointment Archie Cameron (1950-56), a man who ruled with an iron enforcement of standing orders.

“As Speaker, he was certainly autocratic and at times eccentric, yet Labor’s Clyde Cameron summed him up as ‘easily the best Speaker in living memory’. Archie’s integrity was never held in doubt, even by his severest critic,” records the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Come back Archie in our hour of need.

Bronwyn Bishop resigns: Who will be the next Speaker of the House?