Sleeping through a Revolution!
In July last year I was in Old North Church, Boston, from whose tower a signal by lantern was sent to colonists in Charlestown indicating the British troops were moving. On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere rode to Lexington stopping outside every house, ringing his bell and wakening the inhabitants. “The Regulars are coming out.” The warning successfully allowed the militia to repel the British troops. Revere’s role was not particularly noted until 1861, when his ride became the subject of “Paul Revere’s Ride”, a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem has become one of the best known in American history and was memorized by generations of schoolchildren, starting with the famous lines:
“Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five.”
So commenced the American War of Independence. The ringing of the bell awoke people to the fact a revolution was underway. Many a person like Rip Van Winkle, however, slept during the revolution.
Last week, in New South Wales Parliament, I saw a member sleeping during a revolution – at least during one of the more momentous occasions of New South Wales Parliament since 1824. It wasn’t his fault altogether. He is the oldest person in the Parliament and at 75 deserves his sleep. And we had two late nights (the night before it was 3:15 am before I got into bed!) and two early morning starts (I was up 6 am each morning).
Now it was 12:36 am Wednesday 24th June. I went out of the House Chamber into the member’s lounge to get a drink of water. There was this elderly member asleep, at full stretch in front of a television on a chaise lounge.
When the bells rang he awoke with a start and came into the Council Chamber. It was in uproar. Parliament had been suspended. He walked round getting information. What had happened? He had slept through a revolution.
What Happened. There had been tension all day with a number of defeats of the Government. The Government had lost the vote on motions to ban the proposed Somersby sand mine on the Central Coast and to re-open the inner city 311 bus service. They then lost a key piece of legislation involving hundreds of millions of dollars from the Federal Government because the Opposition, the Greens, the Shooters and myself voted to prohibit the publication in newspapers of school league tables.
The Government’s problems began earlier in the week, when cabinet, led by Nathan Rees and the Deputy Premier, Carmel Tebbutt, refused to cave in to the Shooters Party’s demand to allow the hunting of native animals in national parks. That decision meant the Government had lost the critical support of the Shooters and, with the Opposition, the Greens and myself as the only Independent member of the Legislative Council, indicating we would oppose the bill to sell NSW Lotteries, the legislation was doomed. We had stood firm resisting huge pressure from the Government to pass the key budget $500 million piece of legislation.
The Government worried a parliamentary inquiry into the sale of NSW Lotteries would be established, delaying it for up to a year when the Government wanted the $500 million for its budget now.
Then just before 1 am, New South Wales Parliament descended into chaos with the Government pulling the plug on the Legislative Council to avoid having its plan to sell off NSW Lotteries put to a vote, another disastrous loss for the Government.
The Senior Cabinet minister in the House, Hon Tony Kelly, moved that the house adjourn for the winter break but knowing an adjournment would not be acceptable, ran out the door with the Attorney General before anyone could object. Hence the President Peter Primrose could not put it to the vote, as at least one minister must be present in the House for a vote to be taken. So he suspended all business and walked out himself, until the ringing of the “long bell”. That could be in 10 minutes’ time, or ten days’ time, or in ten weeks’ time. Parliamentarians are simply expected to wait around but are not adjourned.
Oliver Cromwell once used this tactic to force Parliamentarians to keep away from Parliament for several months while he ruled as a dictator. Over three hundred years ago, a civil war was fought and later a revolution to ensure that no longer would a king be able to treat a parliament with such contempt. The resultant Westminster system created parliamentary democracy.
Perhaps the NSW Government would do well to heed Cromwell’s words when he addressed the Rump Parliament in April 1653: “You have been sat to long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”
Everybody was in disarray. Not even the Labor Party members knew what was happening. Parliament was not sitting. But it was not adjourned. Not even the Clerks and the Attendants knew what was happening. It was a revolution instigated by the Government.
Premier Rees was at the State Of Origin, but by phone he agreed to this action rather than have the Government be defeated in the House on a number of other important Bills it wanted passed. The Government also feared a possible motion that would force the Government to reveal all documents related to Mr Rees’ sacking of Tony Stewart last year over allegations he abused a staffer.
But by walking out it suffered a greater humiliation. The fact is that the NSW Government has lost control of the Legislative process.
By 2 am, Senior Labor Party officials came out of crisis talks and gave a “gentleman’s agreement” that the “long bell” would not be rung until September 1st. That was a relief! Many non-Government members feared a long bell could be rung in a couple of week’s time when we were all at home in our electorates, except for the Labor Party members who would have been alerted, and they would meet without the non-Government members and rush through their Bills.
At 11 am the following day, an official Parliamentary sitting Day, the Opposition, the Greens, the Shooters and myself turned up to conduct business but the symbolic Black Rod, which indicates the house is in session, remained in its cabinet, the doors to the Legislative Council locked and the chamber empty. We were ready for work, but the Government had disappeared.
On September 1, the Hansard will record that the parliament is still sitting on June 24 at 1:01 am, until a motion is moved to adjourn the Parliament. We will then all troop out and the bells will ring again, and we will all troop in, and shazam! it will be September 1st at 2:45 pm! Groundhog Day will have ended.
Deeper Conflicts To Watch. There is conflict within the Cabinet. There is fear of the release of documents concerning the Premier’s sacking of Minister Tony Stewart.
A leadership spill could occur in August and as we will reconvene on Sept 1st, but which is still officially 24th June, and no Question Time is scheduled and no questions could be asked about the dumping of Premier Rees and the election of a new Premier.
What now is Rev Fred Nile’s part in all of this? He has become irrelevant since he accepted the deal with the Government for an extra position with an additional salary and expenses of $27,000 pa. The Government hoped that for this he would deliver four votes on every crucial vote: his own, mine as a CDP member, and the two conservative members of the Shooters’ Party. He could count on his own and he has been faithful in supporting all kinds of Government Bills. But he couldn’t count on my vote, as I refused to be dictated to as to how I would vote. And when the Government, because of its own internal conflict between left and right factions, agreed not to allow the shooting of native animals and birds in National Parks, they lost the Shooters’ votes.
This means that Fred Nile can no longer deliver the two votes from the Shooters who decided to teach the Government a lesson. So with only three votes required (Shooters and mine) to vote with the Greens and Opposition, the Government could be defeated. Fred is now irrelevant because he no longer is part of the balance of power. The government is now facing a full-blown crisis with its efforts to get any legislation through the Legislative Council. A revolution has occurred.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C.
