Adams declines high office

THE Federal Member for Lyons, Dick Adams, today declined the Federal Opposition's nomination for him to become Speaker of the House of Representatives. The nomination was part of the political manoeuvring  that followed the unexpected resignation of the speaker this morning.

Hansard records the following:
Liberal MHR Christopher Pyne: "...it gives me great pleasure to nominate the member for Lyons as Speaker of this House. I do so because the conventions of this parliament are that a member of the government takes the role of Speaker, in our Westminster tradition. ... The member for Lyons has served in this parliament since 1993. He was elected in the same election as I was elected in 1993 and he has been re-elected on many occasions since that time. He has been a member of the Speaker's panel of this place since 1996. For 15 years he has been a member of the Speaker's panel of this place and, of course, in the Tasmanian state parliament he was the Chairman of Committees and Deputy Speaker from 1980 to 1981, and as a former member, of course, of the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1979 to 1982. He has served as chairman and deputy chairman of many parliamentary committees. He is eminently qualified to fulfil the role of Speaker in this parliament. I am almost trepidatious in nominating the member for Lyons knowing how he would like to deal with the opposition if he so took the role of Speaker in this parliament. I know that, if he fulfilled the role, he would do so fairly and reasonably. I know, most importantly, his No. 1 qualification for Speaker of this parliament is that he comes from the government. Everyone in this parliament knows that the Westminster tradition in this country has been that the government nominates the Speaker and the government fills the role of Speaker. That is as it should be and that is why I nominate the member for Lyons."
The Clerk: "Does the honourable member for Lyons accept the nomination?"
Mr Adams: "No, I decline the nomination, Mr Clerk."

The political manoeuvring continued with further nominations, all declined, until the controversial Queensland MHR Peter Slipper, a member of the Opposition, was declared to have been elected Speaker. He subsequently resigned from the Liberal National Party, improving the position of the minority Labor government.