Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Victorian Parliament suspended as Speaker walks out..

.. the VIDEO you will find interesting ..

Date November 14, 2013

Richard Willingham, Josh Gordon and Henrietta Cook

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.. the embed is a shorter version of my subbed VIDEO 5:06, same stuff, more .. skip to it if you
want .. guarantee of reminders of some US states .. otherwise, a short intro .. just learned Ken
is a plumber, like your Joe claimed to be .. Ken, the Liberal conservative is the Speaker ..

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Kenneth Maurice Smith (born 30 December 1944) is an Australian politician who is currently the member
for Bass in the Victorian Legislative Assembly and Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

Smith was a plumber before he entered the Parliament of Victoria in 1988, ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Smith_%28politician%29 ..
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The conservative Liberals are in power in the state of Victoria. Ken Smith is a
conservative Liberal rooster (well, like somwhat) .. firstly, the state of Ken's fate ..

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Victoria (abbreviated as Vic.) is a state in the south-east of Australia. Victoria is
Australia's most densely populated state and its second-most populous state overall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_%28Australia%29 ]
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Two minutes of parliamentary uproar
Speaker Ken Smith suspends proceedings after Victoria's parliament
descends into untrammeled name-calling, shouting and invective.

'Childish tactics' of Daniel Andrews to blame
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/childish-tactics-of-daniel-andrews-to-blame-for-chaos-napthine-20131114-2xigi.html

State Parliament has been rendered unworkable and the Napthine government's legislative agenda has ground to a halt, with Speaker Ken Smith unable to control the lower house.

Mr Smith was forced to shut down the Legislative Assembly on Thursday after just nine minutes of debate, underlining the influence of independent Geoff Shaw, who dropped a bomb on Tuesday by declaring he no longer had confidence in the Speaker.


Ken Smith adjourned Parliament at 11.30am after Labor repeatedly attempted to test the numbers by questioning his authority. Photo: Jason South

Mr Smith adjourned Parliament at 11.30am after Labor repeatedly attempted to test the numbers by questioning his authority.

In a blow to Premier Denis Napthine's legislative agenda, the government passed only one bill out of seven planned.

Dr Napthine labelled Thursday's events ''a stunt'' and rejected the idea that Mr Smith had lost control of Parliament.


Ken Smith walked out of State Parliament because of MPs' bad beahviour, he says. Photo: Jason South

Mr Smith lashed out at Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews, describing his behaviour as appalling. ''He is not showing any leadership qualities at all,'' he said.

After two attempts to enforce order by suspending Parliament, Mr Smith announced he was closing down the lower house until November 26.

The Speaker normally ejects MPs if they are out of line. He can also name MPs if they continue to defy his orders, which requires a vote, a scenario that Labor wanted to generate to formally test support for Mr Smith.

During the second break, Mr Shaw, who reiterated his support for the Premier, strode out of Parliament and caught a train back to Frankston.

''It's up to the Speaker to decide how Parliament is run, but if he allowed that to happen, then we've got some issues, haven't we?'' Mr Shaw told Fairfax Media.

Mr Shaw, who is due to face court on Wednesday, said that if the Speaker could not do his job he should consider his position.

''Just because someone thinks you should resign doesn't mean you should. Here we have a case, though, that the majority of parliamentarians have no confidence in the Speaker,'' he said.

A defiant Mr Smith later said he had been elected to be the Speaker ''and that's the job I will continue to do. I wasn't prepared to put up with the behaviour that the Labor Party was going on with.''

The shambles in Parliament ended a bad week for the Premier after a Newspoll showed his government trailing Labor 47-53.

Dr Napthine said Labor had ''hijacked democracy''.

''[It] is purely and simply the political, childish tactics of Daniel Andrews and the Labor Party. They ought to grow up,'' he said.

He denied Mr Shaw was holding the government to ransom, and indicated that the independent MP would vote for the government's business program in the next sitting week.

"It's not Mr Shaw's fault. Mr Shaw is a relatively new member of parliament and he has only seen Parliament operate when there is a regular government business program. I think Mr Shaw would have learnt a lot from this week,'' Dr Napthine said.

'''He would see that this lack of a government business program is very disruptive to Parliament."

But the Premier and deputy Liberal leader Louise Asher, who speaks to Mr Shaw regularly, would not say whether Mr Shaw had been given any assurances over his concerns about security at Parliament.

Dr Napthine denied Parliament was unworkable but conceded it ''was at its worst'' on Thursday. ''We are not running a wait-and-see government, we are getting on with the job.''

Mr Andrews said shutting down Parliament and blaming the opposition was a desperate measure and again showed how much power Mr Shaw wielded.

''The shrill and angry and frankly desperate attempts of Denis Napthine to blame everyone else just doesn't cut it,'' Mr Andrews said. ''This government is out of control, this government is an embarrassment.''

Mr Andrews said Mr Smith and Dr Napthine had done everything to avoid having a vote because they knew the Speaker did not have a majority of support in the lower house.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-parliament-suspended-as-speaker-walks-out-20131114-2xhxp.html

.. sure hope YOU enjoyed .. lolol ..