Welcome to Country for new parliament

28 Sep 2010, 10:00 am   -   Source: SBS Staff and Agencies
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The new era of minority government has begun with a traditional Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony in front of Parliament House.

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Federal MPs and senators have gathered at the front of Parliament House in Canberra for a welcome to country ceremony on Tuesday.


The welcome marks the start of the pomp and ceremony surrounding the opening of the 43rd Parliament.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott are both taking part in the ceremony,  conducted by representatives from Aboriginal communities around Canberra.

There was a round of applause for Ken Wyatt, the first indigenous member of parliament's lower house, who won the seat of Hasluck at the August 21 election.

Aboriginal elder Matilda House, dressed in traditional garb, welcomed parliamentarians to the "very important" ceremony.

She explained the significance of the the traditional smoking ceremony, before paying respect to the gathered parliamentarians.

"I'm particularly pleased we're holding the ceremony in the forecourt of parliament house", she said.

"Enjoy this beautiful country, and all that are here."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott sat by, with the former presented with a boomerang.  Gillard thanked her 'in the same spirit of goodwill as that with which it has been given'

She "acknowledged the bond" the traditional owners have with the land.

"Words and symbols matter", the Prime Minister stressed. She said that every sitting day in the new parliament, recognition of elders will be carried out.

Mr Abbott said it was fitting that 'we should first acknowledge the original inhabitants' of Australia. He conceded the arrival of non-aboriginal people had been a 'mixed blessing at best' for indigenous Australians.

Afterwards, Matilda House invited the politicians forward for a cleansing from the smoke.

"It helps", she said.

Whipping into shape

Meanwhile, new government whip Joel Fitzgibbon has warned federal MPs that voters will notice if they fail to attend crucial parliamentary votes.

The first hung parliament in 70 years meets for the first time on Tuesday, more than five weeks after an election that failed to give either of the major parties an absolute majority in the lower house.

"I am sure every MP in the place now understands the added responsibility they have," Mr Fitzgibbon told ABC Radio.

They would be watched not just by the party whips but by the broader Australian community who might not have known whether MPs missed important votes.

"It certainly will be now," Mr Fitzgibbon said.

Labor and coalition whips will have further discussions on Tuesday about pairing arrangement.

Mr Fitzgibbon said he expected the coalition to be reasonable when it came to providing ministers, absent from parliament on official business, with an opposition pair.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has promised to impose tough pairing conditions insisting Prime Minister Julia Gillard attend all important parliamentary votes.

End the argy-bargy: Windsor

Key independent MP Tony Windsor, one of four crossbenchers providing support for a Labor minority government, believes the political "argy-bargy" of the past week has gone on long enough.

Labor and the coalition have been jousting over which of the two should provide the Speaker and a deputy in the lower house.

Labor's Harry Jenkins almost certainly will be Speaker when MPs meet for the first time at 11.30am (AEST), but who will be his deputy won't be known until about 5.30pm.

"As long as it's not me," Mr Windsor told reporters when asked whether he cared about who might be deputy speaker.

"The argy-bargy that's being going on over the last week on this matter is unfortunate."

Mr Windsor remains confident the Gillard government can go the distance in a hung parliament.

"I think it's got a very good chance," he said, adding the government had the support of 77 of the 150 lower house MPs on supply and confidence.

"I'd say it's highly unlikely that any of the (six) crossbenchers are going to support a frivolous no-confidence motion."

Brown optimistic

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown says he'll be approaching the new parliament with optimism.

"Rather than ... whingeing and (being) negative like the opposition," he told reporters, adding Mr Abbott must decide if he wanted to be "constructive or destructive".

"Tony Abbott's taking the wrecking mode," he said, noting that the opposition leader's attitude could make parliament "difficult and nasty".

Trade Minister Craig Emerson said he did not expect the opposition to provide him with a pair if he were away from parliament on a "non-essential" overseas trip.

"But if it's a very important trip in the national interest, I would hope and expect (a pair)," he told Sky News.

"I will try and travel outside of parliamentary times but we don't necessarily set all of the international timetables for trade negotiations."

Independent senator Nick Xenophon is hopeful the new parliament will run smoothly.

"I'm just hoping that the new paradigm won't turn into the old pantomime," he told reporters.

Coalition 'will be constructive'

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham says the coalition will be constructive.

"The government seems to believe that compliance equals constructive activity, we disagree," he told reporters, adding that the parliamentary agenda would not be determined by Labor but by the lower house crossbench.

"(Prime minister) Julia Gillard has no agenda of her own," he said, noting that her government was not pursuing any "substantive" legislation.

A string of coalition backbenchers rejected the "wrecking" tag Labor has used against Mr Abbott, but it didn't stop Labor's Amanda Rishworth.

"He has chosen to take a wrecking ball to this parliament," she told reporters.

Asked where the word, in use by many Labor MPs from Prime Minister Julia Gillard down, had come from, Ms Rishworth said: "It's come out of my head".

Speaker , Parliament , Hung Parliament

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