NSW MP could be ejected over lapel pin

17 Oct 2012, 6:35 pm   -   Source: AAP

An MP who wore a lapel pin 5mm wider than parliamentary dress codes allow could be ejected from the NSW upper house for breaching standards.

In the NSW Upper House, five millimetres makes all the difference.

If your lapel pin is wider than the prescribed 20 millimetre limit, you could be ruled out of order for breaching dress standards.

Do that three times, and the president of the Upper House could eject you from the chamber.

But this did not worry Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham, who wore a 25 millimetre wide Aboriginal flag pin back into the chamber on Wednesday, only a day after he expressed fears he could find himself expelled for breaching the parliamentary dress code.

"To be thrown out ... because of a pin the size of a thumb nail ... what planet are we on?" Mr Buckingham told AAP.

Government Whip Peter Phelps had on Tuesday called Mr Buckingham on a point of order for wearing the oversized badge, and Mr Buckingham expected a repeat the following day.

However, when no MP objected to the pin on Wednesday Mr Buckingham claimed the government had backed down.

Mr Buckingham said Mr Phelps had been "smacked down" and "told to pull his head in" by his boss, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell.

Mr Buckingham also called for Mr Phelps to be sacked saying it was what his pin displayed, not its dimensions, that prompted Mr Phelps to raise the point of order.

"This was always about this being an Aboriginal flag pin... he picked on this pin because he didn't like it," Mr Buckingham told reporters in Sydney.

But Mr Phelps told AAP these assertions were completely untrue.

Mr Buckingham was well aware of the rules having been called on the same point of order in September, Mr Phelps said.

On that occasion Mr Buckingham chose to remove an oversized eagle badge rather than have himself ruled out of order, the whip added.

Mr Phelps said that he would not bother calling Mr Buckingham on points of order for dress standards in the future.

"He's clearly attention seeking. I'm not going to give in to his attention seeking, he's just acting like a big baby."

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