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Slipper claims threaten Gillard government

Updated April 24, 2012 05:42:00

With Peter Slipper stepping aside as Speaker amidst claims of sexual harassment, the Government faces questions of credibility and a narrow majority in parliament.

Source: 7.30 | Duration: 7min 23sec

Topics: alp, federal-government, federal-parliament, liberals, fraud-and-corporate-crime, sexual-offences, gillard-julia, australia, qld, maroochydore-4558


CHRIS UHLMANN, PRESENTER: Of all the political deals stitched up to keep the Gillard Government afloat the most fraught was enticing Coalition defector Peter Slipper into the highest office in Parliament, the Speaker's chair. The reward was one more precious vote in a hung chamber, but the risks were his long history of pushing the rules on entitlement as far as they could go and persistent rumours about his behaviour.

Now he's stood down while he defends lurid sexual harassment claims levelled by a male staffer and accusations he criminally defrauded the Commonwealth by signing blank Cabcharge dockets.

The accusations, detailed in documents today, are a major blow to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, reducing her margin in Parliament to a single vote and again raising questions about her judgement.

Shortly we'll be joined by the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott who also has questions to answer over the Slipper affair, but first, Heather Ewart has this report.

HEATHER EWART, REPORTER: It began with great fanfare at the start of the parliamentary year; the Speaker basking in his new role and traditional robes; the Labor Party basking in its clever tricky politics, securing an extra from Coalition ranks to boost its knife-edge grip on power. By the weekend, all had been reduced to this:

JOURNALIST: Did you sexually harass James Ashby?

PETER SLIPPER, SUSPENDED SPEAKER: All allegations have been denied and I'll be making a statement this afternoon.

JOURNALIST: Where will you be making the statement?

HEATHER EWART: These headlines in Saturday's tabloids had thrown Peter Slipper's world into turmoil. Salacious allegations that he'd sexually harassed a staff member and claims he'd misused government taxi vouchers. His denials and subsequent decision to stand down have done nothing to quell the political furore.

ROB OAKESHOTT, INDEPENDENT MP: I think it's the darkest days of this 43rd Parliament.

TONY WINDSOR, INDEPENDENT MP: I don't think it's a good look. I don't think anybody thinks it's a good look. But they are allegations.

ROB OAKESHOTT: Both sides of politics would, you know, arguably, if the allegations are true, trying to play evil genius on each other.

TONY ABBOTT, OPPOSITION LEADER: We were trying to get him out of the Parliament, he was gonna lose his preselection, and while we were trying to get him out of the Parliament, the Prime Minister gave him the biggest job in the Parliament.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE HOUSE: Tony Abbott relied upon Peter Slipper for the one vote that he won the leadership of the Liberal Party by. And that he is only leader of the Liberal Party as a result of Peter Slipper's support. Tony Abbott attended Peter Slipper's wedding.

HEATHER EWART: You get the drift. This is very high stakes for both sides. But the fact is Labor owns Peter Slipper. They put him in the Speaker's chair. They pay the price for whatever happens next.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: If we wanna start down the road of rumours being on the basis of - or allegations being on the basis of action being taken, then I think the consequences for our political processes are dire indeed.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE, MANAGER OF OPPOSITION BUSINESS: Most members of the Labor Party caucus realise that the bad judgment that the Prime Minister made when she dispatched Harry Jenkins and installed Peter Slipper is coming home to roost.

HEATHER EWART: A police investigation into Cabcharge use is one thing, but staffer James Ashby's civil case before the Federal Court alleging Peter Slipper's harassment is quite another. Documents publicly released today detailing talk of massages, suggestions of "getting rocks off", requests to shower with the door open, and so it goes on. Right now in the eyes of the public, it's hard to see how any of this can reflect well on the Government's choice of Speaker or the office itself.

NICK ECONOMOU, POLITICLA ANALYST, MONASH UNI: There's a very strong notion of sleaze associated with the Gillard Government and really what's happened over the last couple of days is just reinforcing it, at least in the eyes of the electorate.

JOHN NETHERCOTE, PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE, ACU: The Speaker should've been an office well above the fray. Instead, it's been the centre of many of the disputes. And that is just very damaging. It's damaging to the Parliament, but it also shows, I think, that the new paradigm effectively hasn't worked. We're not even two years into it; it's in tatters.

NICK ECONOMOU: In a political sense, his position now is damaged, probably irreparably, and Labor will just have to face the reality that it's going to have to provide the Speaker.

HEATHER EWART: It's something the Government is desperately trying to avoid as it awaits the outcome of the police investigations into claims lodged in the Federal Court last Friday that Peter Slipper had given unsigned taxi vouchers to a limousine driver.

JULIA GILLARD, PRIME MINISTER: I don't claim to know Mr Slipper personally or well, but I formed a professional judgment about his ability to do the job.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: I think he's been a very good Speaker. I think it is appropriate that he has stepped aside whilst these criminal issues are being dealt with.

HEATHER EWART: It's quite possible if cleared by the police investigation Peter Slipper could be back in the Speaker's chair when the budget is brought down in two weeks' time. Not only will his return overshadow the budget, but those other documents relating to sexual harassment allegations before the Federal Court would still be hanging over Peter Slipper's and the Government's heads.

JOHN NETHERCOTE: It's a halfway house. It's neither one thing nor another. We can't really have the speakership having a cloud of this character over it. He should've resigned.

HEATHER EWART: The Opposition would then have to make the tactical decision about whether to launch a no-confidence motion in the Speaker on budget day and hope to get the support of the independents. That's what it's thinking about as events unfold.

JOURNALIST: Well, what would you do on the motion?

TONY WINDSOR: Well, you tell me what the motion is, who's going to move it and what it's about and I'll give you some consideration, but I'm not gonna get into conjecture

ROB OAKESHOTT: I'm open minded on a no-confidence motion that may come before the House in May in regards to the speakership, but in no way does this in my mind draw any conclusions in regards supply and confidence in government.

HEATHER EWART: There's still been no public comment from James Ashby, the staffer who sparked this political scandal, no comment from the public relations company representing him and none from the celebrity lawyer who's taken on the case. Government MPs now even more despondent about Labor's electoral prospects were also lying low today.

Do you think this signals that the Labor government is finished at the next election?

NICK ECONOMOU: Well I think that there were signals that the Labor government was finished at the next election anyway, and it'd be interesting to see how the opinion polls react in the aftermath of this event.

HEATHER EWART: It was bad enough when the Government had to deal with defending New South Wales MP Craig Thomson, accused of misusing union funds. Now it's got the Speaker to add to the list. Latest internal party polling points to Labor losing every seat in Western Australia, a near wipe-out in Queensland, a huge loss of seats in New South Wales, and that polling was done before the latest political crisis.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Political editor Heather Ewart. And I should mention too that we have asked the Federal Government who will be paying Mr Slipper's bills, his legal bills, and as this program goes to air, still there is no answer. We'll keep you apprised on what happens with that.