Red wine and committee boycotts: Qld marks ‘suicide squad’ centenary

Beyond the confines of the Sunshine State, it could have been perceived as an odd thing to celebrate. The Speaker of Queensland’s sole house of Parliament, Labor MP Curtis Pitt, extolling the efforts of party forebears 100 years ago in sacrificing their political careers to dissolve the upper house.

Yet there it was: opening a parliamentary sitting day, Mr Pitt listed events – including a history seminar and commemorative red wine – to mark the centenary of the abolition on March 23.

The Queensland LNP Opposition’s deputy chair of the economics and governance committee, Ray Stevens, and other party members boycotted a meeting last week citing the “failing” portfolio committee system meant to replace the state’s upper house.Credit: Matt Dennien, Michelle Smith

The move, by successive Labor governments and a group dubbed the “suicide squad”, has left Queensland alone in Australia as the only state without a Westminster-style house of review.

But many continue to question how the system meant to replace it as a check on government accountability is working.

Only a day before, the three Opposition members of a parliamentary committee with oversight of the state’s lobbying watchdog, under the spotlight amid allegations of political interference, boycotted a meeting after what is believed to have been a blocked push to publicly release relevant documents.

The LNP’s deputy chair of the economics and governance committee, Ray Stevens, said the move to ensure their silence under strict rules banning discussion of often-secretive deliberations was not “misrepresented by the failing of the portfolio system”.

An alleged breach of this confidentiality had only weeks earlier been referred to the administrative-focused ethics committee for investigation by the EGC’s Labor chair Linus Power, after a transcript of a private briefing with outgoing Integrity Commissioner Nikola Stepanov appeared in the media.

What was the upper house and why was it abolished?

The smaller Queensland upper house, or Legislative Council, was composed of more conservative-leaning members initially appointed by state governors for terms of five years, and ultimately for life.

This led to a perception of the body as a handbrake on legislation pulled by wealthy gentry – a view cemented during the first long-term Labor government of Premier TJ Ryan in 1915. Reform or abolition plans had been long-floated and several failed attempts, including a referendum, followed.

The former Legislative Council in Queensland Parliament, known as the Red Chamber, is now used for ceremonial or formal events.Credit: Michelle Smith

A sympathetic new governor in a former Labor MP, whose 14 appointments to the council were dubbed the “suicide squad”, gave the upper house the numbers to vote itself out of existence in late 1921. It was formally abolished in March the following year.

A similar attempt in NSW, one of the holdouts among states to switch to direct upper house elections, failed in 1925.

What has happened since?

While some committees would eventually appear to deal with largely procedural matters, it was not until after the Fitzgerald Inquiry that serious attention turned to bodies scrutinising government.

That report recommended a “comprehensive system” of committees to do so. But the vision was not fully realised until Bligh-government overhauls a decade ago, long-time Parliament Clerk Neil Laurie suggested last year.

“At the end of the day, what a committee investigates and how it investigates will be subject to the will of the majority and sometimes the decisions themselves will not be revealed,” he offered in a submission to a review of the Crime and Corruption Commission.

Most of the state’s 12 parliamentary committees now comprise three government and three non-government MPs. All are chaired by a Labor member who holds the casting vote for any tie.

What could be done differently?

The LNP and minor parties have long argued the present system is skewed towards the ruling party.

There have been previous agitations for a return of an upper house, including scrapped LNP calls for a referendum, but attention has shifted to an overhaul of the estimates and committee systems to reduce favourable government questions and appoint non-government chairs.

University of Queensland political historian Chris Salisbury said the referendum now necessary to re-establish an upper house was a perennial topic enjoying some popular support, like daylight saving, but would be a “difficult ask” to get a majority behind the need for more representation.

Speaking in Parliament on October 27 last year, marking 100 years since the last sitting of the upper house, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk pointed to the recent passage of voluntary assisted dying laws and the lengthy committee process that drove it as an example of how well the bodies could operate, before being drowned out by Opposition jeers when referring to the “excellent committee chairs”.

“I give talks to students all the time and they never get that excited about committees,” she added after the noise subsided.

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