Labor MP Milton Dick emerges as frontrunner for Speaker role despite factional divisions
Queensland Labor MP Milton Dick has emerged as the frontrunner to take on the coveted Speaker role in the House of Representatives, despite a split within the right faction that will determine the position.
While the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has yet to officially announce that the government will fill the role from within its ranks rather than give it to an independent, MPs expect the Labor caucus to endorse Dick for the position when parliament sits next month, in a close contest with Victorian MP Rob Mitchell.
After the left faction endorsed Sue Lines as Senate president in the first caucus meeting after the election, the Speaker position will go to someone in the right.
The right remains divided, with the Victorian right backing Mitchell, while the New South Wales and Queensland right are backing Dick. With the support of MPs from Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania, Dick is understood to be narrowly ahead of Mitchell.
The NSW right is understood to be supporting Dick after it failed to secure the position of chief whip that it has previously held, which went to Victorian MP Jo Ryan.
However supporters of Mitchell said that some within the NSW right may still choose to back him for the role, saying if it does not vote as a bloc he could get the numbers.
But most of the faction are understood to believe that Dick is better qualified for the cabinet-level position, which comes with a $157,000 pay rise on top of a base salary of $211,250.
The move to appoint the Speaker from within Labor ranks comes after Albanese secured a majority of 77 seats in the House of Representatives, allowing him to give up a vote on the floor of the chamber and still maintain a majority.
Independent MPs had been urging Albanese to appoint the Speaker from the cross bench, with Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie arguing that it would be a “powerful and positive” message to send to the community about his approach to the new parliament.
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But Albanese has already got the crossbench offside by deciding to cut their staff entitlement from four extra advisers to one, in a move that has been criticised by the independents as an “attack on democracy” that will hobble their ability to properly consider legislation.
The Speaker position is expected to be determined when parliament resumes in the final week of July, with the right caucus to first endorse one of its MPs for the position, before a full meeting of caucus votes on the role on Tuesday 26 July.
The government’s nomination is then put to a vote in the House of Representatives, after which the successful candidate is dragged to the chair in a display of faux reluctance – a tradition that references the 14th-century origins of the British parliamentary position and the dangers that historically came with the role.