Members

Member for Unley, Suspension

The SPEAKER (11:01): Before we hear from the Leader of Government Business, on the last day of sitting, after a call to order and two warnings, I removed the member for Unley. As the member for Unley left the chamber, in the gangway he continued to make remarks loudly to the Treasurer and I named him.

The Leader of Government Business moved that he be suspended from the service of the house for the remainder of the day, but I think if one looks at the Votes and Proceedings one will see that the intervention of the Clerk and I severed the specification of a sentence because there is mandatory minimum sentencing for naming, and so it turned out that the member for Unley had been named earlier in the session for calling another member a racist and refusing to withdraw, if my memory serves me correctly, and therefore the mandatory minimum sentence for a second naming is three days' suspension from the service of the house.

I have read the Hansard of the exchange, and there are certain remarks of the Treasurer which I did not hear at the time. I do not think they refer to the member for Unley, but nevertheless they are unparliamentary and I will take that up with the Treasurer when he is in the house, but I feel that three days' suspension from the house is disproportionate in the circumstances. Leader of Government Business.