Labor MP John Pandazopoulos was thrown out of the Victorian Parliament during question time last Wednesday, after objecting to Speaker Ken Smith’s handling of a question to Premier Napthine on the resourcing of the state’s ambulances.
The Premier had been asked by the member for Melton, Mr Don Nardella, if the Coalition would provide Victoria’s paramedics “the resources they need to fix this ambulance crisis?”
Mr Nardella had prefaced his question by alluding to the case of one of his constituents – Joanne Vella, who was forced in October 2012 to drive her 78-year-old mother, Liliana, to the Sunshine Hospital after her mother suffered a stroke, having waited over four hours for an ambulance.
Ms Vella’s mother died five days later. Unbeknown to the Premier, Ms Vella was in the public gallery to hear Dr Napthine’s response to her MP’s question on the matter.
Premier Napthine’s response to the question, which mentioned the government’s $662 million in the 2013-14 budget for ambulance resources – an increase of 17 per cent since the Coalition gained government, strove to defend the Coalition’s track-record on ambulance services generally, but was howled down by the Opposition.
Halfway through the Premier’s allotted four-minute answer, an interjection by Labor MP Danielle Green, member for Yan Yean, asking on a point of order for Dr Napthine to answer the question about the specific case of Liliana Vella, was followed by critical comments from Joanne Vella shouted from the gallery, also addressed to the Premier.
Speaker Ken Smith declined to uphold Green’s point of order which then drew angry and vocal condemnation from her fellow Opposition MPs.
With the Speaker calling for order, John Pandazopoulos and Danielle Green were asked to leave the debating chamber for their outbursts.
The day after, the Labor member for Dandenong was philosophical about his ejection.
“It’s all part of the cut and thrust,” said Pandazopoulos.
“We’ve been campaigning since the Coalition were elected about the declining performance in terms of response times of Victoria’s ambulances, and we’ve been approached by families who have been affected.
“The Premier has four minutes to answer the question, two and half minutes in, Dr Napthine was still giving this glib rhetorical stuff, and the woman in the gallery, Joanne Vella, whose mum had died, said he wasn’t answering the question.
“We called a point of order, asking the Speaker to require the Premier to answer it directly, and I objected to the way the Speaker was handling it.”
Meanwhile, Labor MP Jenny Mikakos said the Speaker’s actions on Wednesday highlighted a growing frustration felt by the Opposition in regard to his behaviour.
“The Speaker continues to raise eyebrows with his partisan rulings. The Parliament can only do it’s job properly if the Opposition is allowed to scrutinise the government,” Ms Mikakos told Neos Kosmos.
“In his partisan approach [he] is not someone deserving of the respect of MPs.
“He attends Coalition Party room meetings, which Labor Speakers did not do. How can a Speaker attend tactics meetings when he is meant to be the objective arbiter?”