Independent MP Dan Cregan sworn in as Speaker after late-night coup that enraged his former Liberal colleagues

Fresh from his midnight coup and with an extra $150,000 a year in his pocket as the newly minted Speaker, Dan Cregan was grilled about whether he had conspired with Labor to snag his top job.

Newly minted Speaker Dan Cregan has been grilled about whether he had conspired with Labor to snag his top job.

Former colleagues are fuming the Liberal turncoat took the role in “the biggest dog act” MP Adrian Pederick said he had seen. Mr Cregan did not address questions when Mr

Pederick quizzed him on any contact he had with Labor or independents.

Mr Cregan was officially installed as Speaker following a late-night coup just four days after he unleashed turmoil by quitting to become an independent.

Striking just before midnight on Tuesday, Labor combined with most of the six-strong crossbench to oust Liberal Mr Teague from the parliamentary umpire‘s chair to install Mr Cregan.

The putsch followed the earlier passage through parliament‘s lower house of a Bill for an independent Speaker, which now goes to the upper house.

Mr Cregan said he was “humbled and honoured” to become an independent speaker and dismissed suggestions he had betrayed the Liberal Party to serve his own self-interest.

“I’m absolutely sure that I’ve done the right thing for the parliament and I believe that this is a substantial improvement for South Australian democracy,” he said.

MP Dan Cregan (right) on the walk with fellow MPs back to Parliament House from Government House after his swearing in as Speaker. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Mr Cregan said he would not be accepting the taxpayer-funded car and driver that came with the Speakership, confirming he would continue to drive his 2010 50th anniversary Ford Falcon.

“As another independent once said, I would do this job for a can of baked beans if that’s what the pay was,” he said.

“I haven’t entered parliament for any of the glittering prizes. My sole focus is serving the parliament and of course … serving my community.”

Mr Cregan refused to say if he had spoken to Mr Marshall, who is furious and has accused the Adelaide Hills MP of betraying his electorate. Earlier in the day, Mr Marshall was notably absent from Mr Cregan’s swearing-in ceremony at Government House. Traditionally, the premier of the day would attend the formality.

“I won’t go into the details of any conversations with senior ministers here today,” he said.

Of Mr Marshall’s absence from his swearing-in, Mr Cregan said he had expected that only a small group of MPs would attend due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“I respect the Premier and all the work that he’s doing and I look forward to continuing to work with him and his government but also with the Opposition and the crossbench,” he said.

In parliament on Wednesday, Mr Pederick twice asked Mr Cregan if he had discussed becoming Speaker with Labor and the crossbench before he announced on Friday he was resigning from the Liberal Party.

Leader of Government Business Dan van Holst Pellekaan also posed the question to Mr Cregan, who responded by saying the query risked reflecting on a vote of the house, which was not allowed.

“If you have a question in relation to government business, I will take that,” Mr Cregan said. In a testy question time, Mr Pederick also said he had been offended when Mr Cregan, in answering a question, stated the Hammond MP was not a barrister.

Mr Pederick, who acknowledged he was not a barrister, requested an apology.

Mr Cregan obliged, in line with parliamentary practice.

Earlier in the day, Mr Marshall was notably absent from Mr Cregan’s swearing-in ceremony at Government House. Traditionally, the premier of the day would attend the formality.

Mr Marshall, who walked out of the chamber as Mr Cregan was being led to the Speaker’s chair after being voted into the role, said the new Speaker had requested that only a small number of MPs attend the ceremony due to Covid-19.

“I was happy to follow that instruction as an obedient servant of this chamber,” Mr Marshall said.

Liberal backbencher Carolyn Power did not hold back her disappointment in Mr Cregan.

“I look at the member for Kavel and, eye-to-eye, I do not know how you can do this: how on one week you can sit on this side and on the other side, do this,” she said.

Unperturbed by the backlash, Mr Cregan defiantly shrugged off suggestions he had become an independent to serve his own self-interest.

“I’m absolutely sure that I’ve done the right thing for the parliament and I believe that this is a substantial improvement for South Australian democracy,” he said.

Mr Cregan said he would not be accepting the taxpayerfunded car and driver that came with the Speakership, confirming he would continue to drive his 2010, 50th anniversary Ford Falcon.

“My sole focus is serving the parliament and of course … serving my community.”

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said Mr Marshall had “lost control of his own party”.

Chaotic night in parliament

The midnight coup capped an extraordinary day of chaos within state parliament, which also backed an inquiry into Deputy Premier Vickie Chapman over her refusal of a Kangaroo Island deepwater port (see below).

Labor accused Mr Teague of a pattern of favouritism for Liberal MPs by repeatedly turfing out Opposition members, while Liberals fired back by accusing Labor and the crossbench of playing political games.

When parliament voted on the new Speaker, Mr Cregan was declared the winner with 23 votes and installed at 12:03am.

Ex-Liberal MP Dan Cregan stands by the Speaker’s chair after last night’s bombshell events. Picture: SA Parliament

Ousted Speaker Josh Teague on Tuesday – just hours before he lost the lucrative position. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Brenton Edwards

Accepting the appointment, Mr Cregan declared parliament had made a call to install a Speaker who would not serve the interests of the government but had great respect for both sides.

“It is my sincere belief that the Westminster tradition of having an impartial Speaker is a vital improvement to democracy in South Australia, that this is a historic moment,” he said, before taking the chair.

“And that we may seize that moment at a time when emergency powers are being exercised to bring to bear, if it is the will of Parliament, more scrutiny on the executive.”

The bill’s intention is to create an independent Speaker, following the United Kingdom tradition of an apolitical office-holder who does not belong to any party.

The Greens say they will now consider pushing to mandate that the President of the Upper House be independent.

Mr Cregan, who joined the crossbench on Tuesday after The Advertiser on Friday exclusively revealed he would quit the Liberals, is a conservative who holds the neighbouring Adelaide Hills electorate to Mr Teague.

The defection plunged the government deeper into minority, leaving the Liberals with 22 seats compared with Labor’s 19 and six MPs on the crossbench.

Chapman conflict of interest probe

Mr Cregan’s defection eroded the government’s working majority and led to a parliamentary inquiry being launched into whether Attorney-General Vickie Chapman had a conflict of interest and breached the ministerial code of conduct in rejecting an application to build a deepwater port on Kangaroo Island.

The first hearing took place on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after the inquiry was approved by parliament as the newly-inflated crossbench flexed its muscles for the first time since Mr Cregan quit the Liberals over the Hills’ traffic woes.

In a tactical embarrassment for the government, five of the six independents supported an Opposition move to establish the select committee to investigate Ms Chapman’s decision over the seaport.

Former Liberal MP Fraser Ellis abstained from the vote, saying he wanted “absolutely no part of the shenanigans that took place in parliament today”.

Attorney-General Vickie Chapman will now be the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. Picture: Mark Brake

It is a rare feat for an Opposition to successfully move for a parliamentary inquiry into a Minister.

Labor claimed it had evidence Ms Chapman had a conflict of interest in relation to the seaport matter.

Ms Chapman is a sixth-generation local on the island, where she remains a landholder and farmer – which is the basis for the claim of a conflict.

“We believe the way to flesh this out … is to call witnesses, including the Attorney-General, her staff, members of the department, the Planning Commission and any other relevant agency to interrogate them and find out exactly at what depth and level this parliament may have been misled, whether there has been any abuses of office by the Attorney-General … and whether or not the committee should recommend sanction against the Deputy Premier,” Opposition spokesman Tom Koutsantonis said.

Ms Chapman on Tuesday said the issue had already been dealt with by the Speaker and dismissed.

“It is open to the Parliament to establish a select committee, as the state government did into the Labor Party’s despicable publication of a racist poster at the 2014 election, which no one has claimed responsibility for,” she said.

“If this is the Labor Party’s Parliamentary priority, that is their prerogative.”

Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan described the inquiry as a “politically-motivated, mud-slinging fishing expedition” with no basis.

Ms Chapman, as planning minister, in August refused an application by Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers to build a $40m deepwater port on KI’s north coast.

An SA Planning Commission’s report into the proposed project made 56 recommendations, including one to grant the project provisional development authorisation, subject to conditions”.

Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers had hoped to use the Smith Bay seaport, which would have cost more than $40 million, to export an estimated 4.5 million tonnes of timber.

Ms Chapman at the time said she had decided the potential “long-term and irreparable damage” the wharf could bring to the island was a risk she was “not willing to take”.

She also cited the potential effects on surrounding businesses, the marine environment, and biosecurity risks as reasons for the project’s refusal.

There were claims also that former Planning Minister Stephan Knoll was on the verge of approving the controversial multimillion-dollar wharf before his shock resignation in July last year.