The smaller Queensland upper house,or Legislative Council,was composed of more conservative-leaning members initially appointed by state governors for terms of five years,and ultimately for life.
This led to a perception of the body as a handbrake on legislation pulled by wealthy gentry – a view cemented during the first long-term Labor government of Premier TJ Ryan in 1915. Reform or abolition plans had been long-floated and several failed attempts,including a referendum,followed.
A sympathetic new governor in a former Labor MP,whose 14 appointments to the council were dubbed the “suicide squad”,gave the upper house the numbers to vote itself out of existence in late 1921. It was formally abolished in March the following year.
A similar attempt in NSW,one of the holdouts among states to switch to direct upper house elections,failed in 1925.
What has happened since?
While some committees would eventually appear to deal with largely procedural matters,it was not until after the Fitzgerald Inquiry that serious attention turned to bodies scrutinising government.
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That report recommended a “comprehensive system” of committees to do so. But the vision was not fully realised untilBligh-government overhauls a decade ago,long-time Parliament Clerk Neil Laurie suggested last year.
“At the end of the day,what a committee investigates and how it investigates will be subject to the will of the majority and sometimes the decisions themselves will not be revealed,” he offered in a submission toa review of the Crime and Corruption Commission.
Most of the state’s 12 parliamentary committees now comprise three government and three non-government MPs. All are chaired by a Labor member who holds the casting vote for any tie.
What could be done differently?
The LNP and minor parties have long argued the present system is skewed towards the ruling party.
There have been previous agitations fora return of an upper house,includingscrapped LNP calls for a referendum,but attention has shifted to an overhaul of the estimates and committee systems to reduce favourable government questions and appoint non-government chairs.
University of Queensland political historian Chris Salisbury said the referendum now necessary to re-establish an upper house was a perennial topic enjoying some popular support,like daylight saving,but would be a “difficult ask” to get a majority behind the need for more representation.
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Speaking in Parliament on October 27 last year,marking 100 years since the last sitting of the upper house,Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk pointed to the recent passage of voluntary assisted dying laws and the lengthy committee process that drove it as an example of how well the bodies could operate,before being drowned out by Opposition jeers when referring to the “excellent committee chairs”.
“I give talks to students all the time and they never get that excited about committees,” she added after the noise subsided.
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