Hall of shame: Badly behaved MPs who spent the most time in naughty corner

A spike in rowdy behaviour led to the blocking of state MPs from parliamentary debates for more than 100 hours this year.

Labor MPs dominated the Speaker’s naughty corner, according to a list of every 2024 Legislative Assembly suspension, provided by the Victorian Speaker’s office and analysed by The Age.

Despite this trend, former opposition leader Matthew Guy was the most-booted MP this year, ejected from the lower house chamber 15 times. The Liberal frontbencher – who represents Bulleen, Doncaster and Templestowe Lower – was barred from re-entering for a total of 11 hours.

Second in the hall of shame was the Labor MP for Bentleigh, Nick Staikos, who was also booted from the floor of parliament 15 times. However, he just scraped in second to Guy with his suspensions adding up to 10.75 hours.

Fifteen expulsions amount to an average of one ejection every parliamentary sitting week. But in a sign that rowdiness doesn’t affect a politician’s rise, Staikos was earlier this month sworn in as Victoria’s new minister for consumer affairs and local government.

Labor’s representative for Tarneit, Williams Landing and Truganina – Dylan Wight – came in third with 12 ejections totalling nine hours. His Labor colleague, Michaela Settle, one of the two MPs representing Ballarat, was fourth, getting the boot 12 times for a grand total of eight hours in the naughty corner.

Frankston’s Labor MP, Paul Edbrooke, also proved he can throw a political punch as well as save lives. The backbencher was thrown out of the chamber on nine occasions this year, with his bans totalling nine hours.

But Edbrooke has plenty of brownie points in the bank after surviving a plane crash-landing in a Barwon Heads field in 2023, then performing CPR on an ill man just a week later.

Asked about this year’s question time ejections, Guy told The Age: “The Speaker clearly doesn’t have my good sense of humour. Maybe Santa will bring her one?”

Staikos was contacted for comment.

Most-improved MP went to Liberal frontbencher Roma Britnell who was the second-most booted last year, with 11 ejections, but was thrown out of the chamber only five times this year.

“I tried really hard this year,” Britnell told The Age.

Unlike Britnell, not everyone was on their best behaviour in 2024. Labor’s Sarah Connolly, the chair of parliament’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, was not thrown out of the chamber at all in 2023 but was shown the door seven times this year over five hours.

Polwarth Liberal MP Richard Riordan – whose electorate spans Colac, Winchelsea, Apollo Bay and Anglesea – also rocketed up the worst-behaved list.

Roma Britnell was most improved from last year’s naughty list.Credit: Nicole Cleary

Last year, Riordan’s fellow Liberal frontbenchers, Sam Groth and Brad Battin, copped more suspensions than him, but this time the opposition housing spokesman bested them to come in at sixth.

Connolly told The Age that her “tolerance for nonsense” hit its limit earlier this year.

“There’s no holding back now,” she said.

In conducting its analysis, The Age counted only parliament’s repeat offenders: MPs with three or more suspensions to their name.

Regardless, there were still more ejections this year – more than 140 compared to last year’s 130 – or a combined 106 hours. Last year, MPs didn’t quite crack the 100-hour mark. For simplicity, The Age’s graphic has rounded up the number of hours individual MPs were booted.

While the overwhelming majority of offences occurred during question time, Speaker Maree Edwards also threw out rowdy MPs during this year’s budget speeches and “formal business” (parliament-speak for events like the introduction of draft laws and tabling of petitions).

Under parliamentary rules, the Speaker – who presides over the chamber to ensure MPs are following the correct procedures – has the power to eject politicians, whether they are interjecting or not following orders. Each suspension can last for 30 minutes, an hour or more.

The naughtiest cabinet minister this year was Deputy Treasurer Danny Pearson, with three ejections. Also with three ejections was Ellen Sandell from the Greens, who earned the title of most disruptive party leader.

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