Labor veteran wins SA’s top speaker job following portfolio loss
After a failed bid to court a One Nation candidate, Labor is appointing two of its own into the top jobs overseeing the state’s parliamentary battleground for the next four years.
Long-time Labor Minister Nat Cook, who lost her Human Services portfolio in the new state government ministerial line up, has been rewarded with a new seat.
Today Cook was sworn in as the new speaker to preside over the lower house of parliament – while philosophy graduate and former union leader Labor MLC Reggie Martin is president of the state’s upper house for the new four-year term of government.
The announcement was made this morning after One Nation’s Carlos Quaremba revealed an unsuccessful bid by Labor to court a One Nation candidate into the upper house role.
Martin was elected to parliament at the 2022 state election and is a former state secretary, and was the campaign director for Labor’s 2014 victory after what was called the “unwinnable election”.
Greens leader Rob Simms said Labor now had a “stark” choice ahead to work with the new parliament.
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The 22-seat upper house is made up of 10 Labor MLCs, six Liberals, three One Nation, two Greens and independent Sarah Game.
With a Labor member in the presidency, the government would now need the support of two members from other parties to pass legislation in the upper house.
“Will (Labor) work with the Greens or will they side with One Nation – the party of ugly division to deliver their legislative agenda,” Simms said.
“Labor hasn’t got off to a good start with news today that they offered One Nation the Legislative Council Presidency. This craven move smacks of pure political opportunism.”
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The Legislative Council President and Speaker of the House of Representatives were sworn in by Governor Frances Adamson AC at a ceremony at Government House on Tuesday, with the President and Speaker meant to be seen as impartial and authoritative.
The new president succeeds Liberal Terry Stephens and comes after days of speculation that the government was courting a member from another party to fill the role.
One Nation SA state president Carlos Quaremba said his party was offered the presidency, but declined.
“Nothing is more important than having a vote in the upper house to push back on bad legislation,” Quaremba wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
Newly elected Greens member Melanie Selwood said it would be a “betrayal of Labor voters” to put a member of another party in the role.
The upper house presidency is typically held by the government of the day, and the job includes enforcing orders, chairing parliamentary sessions and debates, and casting a tiebreaker vote.
The new speaker succeeds former Labor MP Leon Bignell, who retired at the March election after 20 years in state politics.
The top job in the lower house requires complete impartiality, with the speaker having to resign from their political party.
At the March 21 SA election, Labor claimed 34 of the 47 lower house seats, the Liberals five, One Nation four and independents four.
One Nation federal leader Pauline Hanson was in Adelaide today to attend the swearing-in of her seven new South Australian recruits.
The appointments come just one day after the Electoral Commission declared the 11 new members of the upper house. The Premier called the delay “deeply worrying” after a controversial election that is now the subject of an independent inquiry.
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