Greens say Speaker may have lost confidence of the House

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor has demanded the Speaker explain her role in a fiery parliamentary debate last week, and hasn’t ruled out a motion to topple the presiding officer.

• Greens anger over speaker as Labor adds fuel to stoush
• Opposition parties clash over claims of racism

SPEAKER Sue Hickey may not enjoy the confidence of a majority of the House of Assembly says Greens Leader Cassy O’Connor — who has failed to rule out a motion to topple the presiding officer.

Ms O’Connor had demanded Ms Hickey explain herself over her role in a fiery debate in parliament on Thursday night.

The Greens leader stormed out of the House of Assembly after her request for an apology from Labor member Ella Haddad over racism claims was shut down by the Speaker.

Ms O’Connor said she had not replied to a letter she sent about the incident.

“I’m not sure whether Sue Hickey as Speaker has the confidence of the House,” she said.

Tasmanian Greens Leader Cassie O'Connor on Parliament Lawns, Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

“There are a number of questions that we believe she needs to answer to explain her actions on Thursday night in trying to censor me when I was talking about the extremes of the Chinese government.

“The first thing that this Speaker needs to do is to explain why she inserted herself into the debate, why she tried to censor me, why she did not pull up Ms Haddad for her slanderous accusation towards me, why she shut down Dr Woodruff taking a point of order in my defence and yet let Labor go feral during my contribution and following my contribution.”

Parliament, Speaker of the Tasmanian House of Assembly Sue Hickey. Picture: Chris Kidd

Ms O’Connor said she “would not telegraph our punches” over what action she would take if she did not receive a satisfactory explanation — but said parliaments had the power to remove a presiding officer by a vote of no confidence.

“It’s open to the House, the House is the master of its own destiny and if the House determines that it doesn’t have confidence in the Speaker then on the numbers, the House can remove a Speaker.”

“We want to deal with this very thoughtfully and carefully.

“But at the minimum right now, what we are expecting is an explanation from the Speaker about her conduct last Thursday night, and I will again be asking the Labor member for Clark Ms Haddad for an apology.”

A Labor spokewoman said the parliament had “more important things be spending time on”.

“Cassy O’Connor’s outburst was out of line,” she said.

“The Speaker was asserting her authority to control the House, as is her right. Ultimately this is a matter for Cassy O’Connor and the Speaker to resolve.”

A government spokeswoman said: “the Speaker retains our confidence”.

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