ON TUESDAY 24th MARCH, the new Premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, takes her place on the left hand side of the legislative chamber for the opening of the 55th Queensland Parliament.

Observers and commentators, as well as the general public, will be keen to get a sense of the style of the new government and how they will manage the challenges of minority government. Much will occur in the first sitting week, but the focus is more on the ceremonial rather than the crunch of gladiatorial politics so beloved by the evening news.

For lovers of history, this is one of the few opportunities to see the full pomp and ceremony of the Westminster tradition on display. There will be guards of honour, judges, religious representatives and the armed forces all in ceremonial dress and the redundant Upper House opened up for the official opening.

The relationship between the Crown and the Parliament is often lost in the to-ing and fro-ing of adversarial politics but the opening of Parliament shows our colonial roots is still evident in the symbiotic relationship between the Queen’s representative, the Governor, and the Legislative Assembly.

The first order of business is to swear in the members of the new Parliament. Each member will come up and make an oath or affirmation of allegiance and then sign the Roll of Members. The new Speaker is then elected. To undertake this, the Father of the House, which is the longest serving member, will take the Chair to manage this process. This role will be taken by Lawrence Springborg who will call for nominations for the position. If there is only one nomination, the Speaker will be called to the Chair, if more than one, a series of ballots held until there is a majority of votes.

The Speaker is then wrestled to the Chair. This show of reluctance goes back to 15th Century England when conflict between the Sovereign and the Parliament often led to real danger for the Speaker. The Speaker must then be presented to the governor to receive the ‘Royal Approbation’ for the appointment, which the new Speaker then reports back to the House.

After this, the formalities continue with the arrival of the Governor for the ceremonial opening of the Parliament, which occurs in the old Legislative Council Chamber. During his speech, the Governor will outline the government’s agenda and legislative priorities for this Parliamentary term. Then everyone adjourns for tea on the Speaker’s Green.

Once the ceremonial mace has been put away and the Governor sent back up the hill, the real work begins for the newly elected Labor Government. Each Parliament starts with a clean legislative slate.

When the 54th Parliament was dissolved by proclamation on 6 January 2015, all of the bills introduced in the Legislative Assembly but not yet passed, automatically lapsed. It is up to the new Cabinet to decide which pieces can be tabled again or abandoned. It will take a while for the Labor Government’s legislative program to get up to full speed but the Premier has already indicated her priorities for the first sitting.

This initial legislation is an important symbolic moment in the life of the new Government and Premier Palaszczuk has advised accountability and transparency will be her priority. She will introduce legislation to lower the political donation threshold from $12,800 to $1,000 and seek to have donations disclosed at the time they are made.

To counteract this, Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg flagged he will introduce legislation to try and get the LNPs public hospital Wait Time Guarantee initiative passed by the Parliament. Again, this is symbolic politics and designed to embarrass the new government, but even if passed such legislation cannot bind a government to program delivery. However, such an attempt will give a sense of the challenges in managing a minority Government and test the Speaker-elect, Peter Wellington’s commitment to the Labor Government.

These differing priorities throw up a challenge for Annastacia Palaszczuk’s management of the finely balanced Parliament. She will need to find the right equilibrium between unpicking the many pieces of legislation passed by the Newman Government which Labor opposed, with getting on with their own legislative priorities. The danger is spending too much time looking in the rear vision mirror will jeopardise the forward momentum needed to reach their own destination.

The Opening of Queensland’s 55th Parliament can be viewed online.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JENNIFER MENZIES

Jennifer is Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University and is a Member of the Commonwealth Grants Commission and Director of the consultancy Policy Futures.

Jenny has over 20 years experience in policy and public administration in both the State and Commonwealth Governments.

As a senior executive within the Queensland Department of the Premier and Cabinet she developed the government’s strategic policy agenda including the Smart State Policy.

She was Cabinet Secretary from 2001 to 2004 and the inaugural Secretary for the Council for the Australian Federation from 2007 to 2009. She publishes in the fields of caretaker conventions, federalism and intergovernmental relations.

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