IT WAS tempting to rush out and scan the sky for a blue moon or flying pork.

The Speaker had ordered Prime Minister Julia Gillard to clam up and sit down.

His reason? She was being irrelevant.



No one could remember the like of it.

Prime ministers and their ministers have traditionally spent large portions of every question time avoiding what most people would recognise as a semblance of relevance in responding to questions.

The Speaker, Peter Slipper, has the quaint view that questions should be answered.


Prime Minister Julia Gillard was forced to sit down. Resplendent in black robe, white bow tie and barrister's tabs, fresh from his latest ceremonial procession to the House, Mr Slipper decided to enforce his edict at the first opportunity yesterday.

His mood was possibly sharpened by the appearance of the fellow he replaced as Speaker, Harry Jenkins, sporting his own silvery bow tie. The view around Parliament was that Mr Jenkins was gently taking the mickey.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott opened combat with his favourite subject: reminding Ms Gillard that she had promised during the last election campaign that there would be no carbon tax. Now she was introducing just such a tax and had admitted she had made mistakes she regretted, would she ''rescind her deception'' and put aside the tax until she took it to the next election?

Mr Slipper ordered Mr Abbott to withdraw the word ''deception''. But when Ms Gillard launched into her answer the full might of the Speaker was exerted.

''Putting a price on carbon was the right thing to do and I stand by it,'' Ms Gillard began, her eyes turning flinty in the style she has assumed following the Great Unpleasantness of the past week.

And then, in her well-practised manner, Ms Gillard turned the question on its head and got stuck into the opposition, declaring that Coalition MPs might like to explain why they had promised to introduce a price on carbon during the 2007 election campaign. As she reached full throttle, Mr Slipper called for her to be ''directly relevant'' to the question.

Ms Gillard sailed on, and the Speaker hollered again for her to get back to the subject at hand.

The Prime Minister, who appeared to have been studying Meryl Streep's Oscar-winning depiction of Maggie Thatcher in The Iron Lady, wasn't for turning. It was a battle of wills.

Mr Slipper triumphed. He simply turned off the Prime Minister's microphone, told her she would no longer be heard and sat her down.

Ms Gillard appeared thunderstruck.Speakers in the past have found themselves defrocked for lesser slights to a prime minister's dignity.

But Mr Slipper pretty clearly knows Ms Gillard can't afford to have him back on the benches voting with the Coalition.

She needs him exactly where he is, and he is free to behave as independently as he likes. Which, it appears, is quite a lot.

These labor idiots just dont know conciquences of their actions until it all falls over on top of them.

Very noice.

progressiveslol wrote on Feb 29^th, 2012 at 10:08am:


Slipper is actually taking his role pretty seriously.
Just remember your NOICE when he does the same thing to Abbott.
I have no problem with the mics being turned off & members being admonished for refusing to stay relevant.

We finally have a speaker who takes their job seriously.Good on him..hopefully it goes a long way to cleaning up the unprofessional rabble that occurs during question time.

longweekend58 wrote on Feb 29^th, 2012 at 11:25am:


Our business has quite a lot of work thanks to Peter Lewis's demands to support Ranns Labor govt so Im not about to have a go at him   
But I agree he did take the speakers position seriously and considering all the extra salary and perks they get ..so they should.

adelcrow wrote on Feb 29^th, 2012 at 11:30am:


Dose your company supply the ASIAN HOOKERS ?