Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Re-elected to the chair Paul Calvert, flanked by senators Abetz and Watson. Photo: Andrew Taylor

G'day. On October 23 and 24, 2003 the Senate President, Paul Calvert, played out his capitulation to the Prime Minister in degrading the Senate and betraying his obligations to show equal respect for every Senator elected by the Australian people.

I detailed the betrayal of our Parliament and its standing by Calvert and the House of Representatives speaker Neil Andrew when Presidents Bush and Hu addressed our Parliament in my book, Not Happy John! Defending our Democracy. Calvert, despite strong objections by experts, put up a motion for a joint sitting of the Senate and the House of Representatives which was probably unconstitutional and could have seen an unprecedented High Court injunction. Calvert also refused to investigate an assault on Senator Nettle by an officer of the House of Representatives after Bush concluded his speech. 

Calvert's decisions in the lead up to Chinese President Hu's address to our Parliament on October 24, 2003, were, quite simply, reprehensible. They showed complete subservience to the wishes of the Prime Minister, and complete disregard for his obligations to treat all Senators equally, uphold the rights and dignity of the Senate and ensure access to Parliamentary proceedings by all peaceful Australian citizens.

He even authorised the use of physical force on Greens Senators Nettle and Brown to stop them attending the House of Representatives address of President Hu. A Senate committee later found that at least one of Calvert's actions on those two fateful days were done without lawful authority.

In the case of authorising force, he deliberately did not consult the Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans, who, appalled, told Senate officers not to lay a hand on any Senator. For the Senate report on this debacle, see here.

My Chapter on the Hu Parliamentary address is republished at China is not a normal country. An extract:

23 October 2003

"Andrew defies the rules of the joint meeting agreed to by the Parliament for 23 October, which decrees an immediate adjournment after Bush's speech to Parliament, and at Tony Abbott’s request suspends Greens senators Brown and Kerry Nettle for twenty-four hours so they cannot attend the Hu speech in the chamber. The expulsion also breaches the chamber's rules, which require that a vote be taken on expulsion if two or more people call out no to the order. (Several voices are clearly heard saying no.)

"A Senate committee will later find that Andrew also had no power to order a senator to leave because he has no authority over senators. The Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans, will also advise that Brown and Nettle could have sought an urgent injunction in the High Court to annul the expulsion order as unconstitutional, creating an international incident.

"Yet Andrew issues an unprecedented directive to Parliament House staff to use "preventative force" if necessary to stop Brown and Nettle from entering the House of Representatives to hear Hu's speech at the joint sitting on 24 October. Calvert countersigns the order without seeking the advice of his Senate Clerk, Evans, or anyone else on its legality. Appalled, Evans instructs Senate staff that 'no Senate officer is to lay hands on a Senator or physically interfere with a Senator in any way'. He will later explain to Senate Estimates:

The basis of it, firstly, was that it would be highly undesirable to have Senate officers assaulting a Senator; secondly, that the authority for keeping Senators out of a meeting of the Senate was extremely dubious, to say the least.

"Andrew also makes the unprecedented decision that official guests of the Greens - Australian citizens of Tibetan descent Dhondup Phun Tsok and Mrs Tsering Deki Tshokoto, and Chin Jin, an Australian of Chinese descent and Chair of the Federation for a Democratic China - will be banned from sitting in the open public gallery. Calvert consents.

"Neither Andrew nor Calvert advise the Greens' parliamentarians that their guests will be diverted from the public gallery.

24 October 24 2003

"Speaker Andrew and Senate President Calvert wait at the side entrance of Parliament House to greet President Hu. A white car pulls up but instead of Hu, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing alights to express "some concerns". Andrew, Calvert and the Foreign Minister adjourn to Andrew's office, where Li says Hu is worried about 'two Green senators in the chamber and three guests - "dissidents" he called them - in the gallery, who were likely to interrupt the President's speech'. Li names Chin Jin.

Andrew assures Li that the Greens senators will not get in, and that Chin Jin will not be in the public gallery. (Calvert:) 'The Speaker repeatedly gave them assurances, as best he could, that that was not going to happen. They seemed satisfied with that'."

*

Naturally, given his 'yes sir' form, the Coalition put Calvert up as its choice for Senate President for the new Senate which gathered for the first time today. Despicably, every ALP Senator voted for him, even though there was a secret ballot and they could, if they'd had any guts, protested.

For the first time, The Greens put up a candidate, NSW Senator Kerry Nettle. She was the only other nomination. She received seven votes - the four Green Senators and, it seems, only 3 of the 4 Democrats Senators. So one Democrat Senator voted for this excuse for a fair umpire supposedly sworn to uphold the dignity of the Senate.

All this was done in the full knowledge that Calvert, BEFORE he was even voted in as the Senate President for the new Senate - his term as President expired at midnight last night and he was not re-elected until this afternoon - had manipulated present Question Time rules to privilege the new Senator the Government is cultivating like mad, Family First's Steve Fielding, at the expense of The Greens, the Democrats and Labor.

Fielding will get proportionately more questions, at a more favourable time in Question Time, than the minor parties. This was done without consultation with any Senator, an unprecedented action. Yet, in a sickening display of meaningless platitudes, Labor went along for the Calvert ride.

Get this garbage from the Senate leader Robert Hill, the bloke who perverted Question Time rules to suit his government's party political interests in a letter to Labor yesterday and must have been pleased that Calvert - whose job description supposedly gives HIM the right to decide such things - converted Hill's 'suggestion' to an order in a preemptory directive to Labor, the Dems and The Greens this morning before the new Senate sat:

You have been judged on performance. (You have) cross chamber support for the way in which you have carried out your office. You have conducted your responsibilities correctly and fairly...recognising the importance of this chamber as a critical part of Australian democracy.

Hill grinned.

Labor Senate leader Chris Evans was no better. He assured the Senate that Labor MPs "to a person" voted for Calvert. "You as President have done justice to the office."

And Fielding? Since the election "you've been very helpful, you and your staff".

Of course he has. Yuk.

As I write, there's trouble in the Senate on Calvert's overt favouritism for a Senator the Government wants to shmooze. Labor is rubbishing Calvert for sending Labor an exact copy of the new Queestion Time rules that Hill had sent him yesterday. Yes sir.

Big deal, Labor. You had the chance to protest the government's choice of Calvert, yes man, and voted for him instead. It was unprecedented to do such a thing without consultation with all Senators on Senate processes.

The big party club, you know? Who cares about the people's choices, or the theoretical sovereignty of Parliament over the PM and his ambitious ministers.

It's all just a game, after all, albeit a game with our lives and a game with our democracy.

Rave on, Labor. Rhetoric is all you're good for.

This is just the beginning, folks. This is just day one of the Howard's Senate, and on day one you know that if you voted for a Senator the government doesn't want to tickle, your representative has fewer opportunities to ask questions on your behalf. Labor and a Democrat voted for this dishonourable man, this Senator Calvert. Thanks.

Last word to Calvert, upon his election today:

"I genuinely consider myself a servant of the Senate."

BS.

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