Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly

Last updated

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly
Coat of Arms of Victoria.svg
EdwardsJaniceMaree.jpg
Incumbent
The Honourable
Maree Edwards

since 2 August 2022
Style The Honourable
AppointerElected by the Victorian Legislative Assembly
Inaugural holder Francis Murphy
Formation21 November 1856
Deputy Natalie Suleyman
Website Official website
Party website

The Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly is the presiding officer of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria. The presiding officer of the upper house of the Parliament of Victoria, the Victorian Legislative Council, is the President of the Victorian Legislative Council.

A Speaker is elected at the beginning of each new parliamentary term by the Legislative Assembly from one of its members. The Assembly may re-elect an incumbent Speaker by passing a motion; otherwise, a secret ballot is held. The Assembly can dismiss the Speaker by a majority vote, and the Speaker can resign.

In practice, the Speaker is usually a member of the governing party or parties, who have the majority in the Assembly, and continues to be a member of his or her political party, but it is left to their individual discretion as to whether or not they attend party meetings. The Speaker also continues to carry out his or her ordinary electorate duties as a member of Parliament and must take part in an election campaign to be re-elected as a member of Parliament.

The Deputy Speaker, also elected by the Assembly, supports and assists the Speaker in the execution of his or her duties, and fulfils the role as Speaker in their absence or during a vacancy in the position.

Speakers of the Victorian Legislative Assembly

Speakers [1]
No.NameTook officeLeft officePartyTime
1 Francis Murphy 21 November 185624 January 187114 years, 64 days
2 Charles MacMahon 25 April 1871April 18776 years, 0 days
3 Charles Gavan Duffy 22 May 18779 February 18802 years, 263 days
(2)Charles McMahon11 May 188029 June 188049 days (6 years, 49 days)
4 Peter Lalor 22 July 188029 September 18877 years, 69 days
5 Matthew Davies 4 October 1887April 18924 years, 183 days
6 Thomas Bent 11 May 1892September 18942 years, 123 days
7 Graham Berry 4 October 1894September 18972 years, 335 days
8 Francis Mason 25 October 1897September 19024 years, 335 days
9 Duncan Gillies 14 October 190212 September 1903 Liberal 333 days
10 William Beazley 16 September 190310 May 1904 Labor 237 days
11 Frank Madden 29 June 1904October 1917 Liberal 13 years, 122 days
12 John Mackey 29 November 19176 April 1924 Nationalist 6 years, 129 days
13 John Bowser 30 April 19245 March 1927 Nationalist 2 years, 309 days
14 Oswald Snowball 6 July 192716 March 1928 Nationalist 254 days
15 Alexander Peacock 4 July 19287 October 1933 Nationalist 5 years, 95 days
United Australia
16 Maurice Blackburn 11 October 19331 August 1934 Labor 294 days
17 William Everard 2 August 19346 September 1937 United Australia 3 years, 35 days
18 Tom Tunnecliffe 19 October 193715 February 1940 Labor 2 years, 119 days
19 William Slater 1 May 194020 October 1942 Labor 2 years, 172 days
20 George Knox 21 October 19429 October 1947 United Australia 4 years, 353 days
Liberal
21 Thomas Maltby 2 December 194713 April 1950 Liberal 2 years, 132 days
22 Archie Michaelis 20 June 195031 October 1952 Liberal 2 years, 133 days
23 Keith Sutton 17 December 195222 April 1955 Labor 2 years, 126 days
24 William McDonald 15 June 195519 March 1967 Liberal 11 years, 277 days
25 Vernon Christie 16 May 196718 June 1973 Liberal 6 years, 33 days
26 Kenneth Wheeler 19 June 197328 May 1979 Liberal 5 years, 343 days
27 Jim Plowman 29 May 197926 April 1982 Liberal 2 years, 332 days
28 Tom Edmunds 27 April 198224 October 1988 Labor 6 years, 180 days
29 Ken Coghill 25 October 198826 October 1992 Labor 4 years, 1 day
30 John Delzoppo 27 October 199213 May 1996 Liberal 3 years, 199 days
(27) Jim Plowman 14 May 19962 November 1999 Liberal 3 years, 172 days (6 years, 139 days)
31 Alex Andrianopoulos 3 November 199924 February 2003 Labor 3 years, 113 days
32 Judy Maddigan 25 February 200318 December 2006 Labor 3 years, 296 days
33 Jenny Lindell 19 December 200620 December 2010 Labor 4 years, 1 day
34 Ken Smith 21 December 20104 February 2014 Liberal 3 years, 45 days
35 Christine Fyffe 4 February 201422 December 2014 Liberal 321 days
36 Telmo Languiller 23 December 201425 February 2017 Labor 2 years, 64 days
37 Colin Brooks 7 March 20172 August 2022 Labor 5 years, 227 days
38 Maree Edwards 2 August 2022Incumbent Labor 79 days

Related Research Articles

President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President of the Senate (Australia)</span> Presiding officer of the upper house of the Australian Parliament

The President of the Senate is the presiding officer of the Australian Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speaker (politics)</span> Presiding officer of a national assembly, legislative body

The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorian Legislative Assembly</span> Lower house of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia

The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament of Sri Lanka</span> Supreme legislative body of Sri Lanka

The Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the supreme legislative body of Sri Lanka. It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the island. It is modeled after the British Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorian Legislative Council</span> Upper house of Parliament of Victoria, Australia

The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Council serves as a house of review, in a similar fashion to its federal counterpart, the Australian Senate. Although, it is possible for legislation to be first introduced in the Council, most bills receive their first hearing in the Legislative Assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Assembly of Pakistan</span> Lower legislative house of the Parliament of Pakistan

The National Assembly or Aiwān-e-Zairīñ of Pākistān is the lower legislative house of the bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, which also comprises the Senate of Pakistan. The National Assembly and the Senate both convene at Parliament House in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. The National Assembly is a democratically elected body consisting of a total of 342 members who are referred to as Members of the National Assembly (MNAs), of which 272 are directly elected members and 70 reserved seats for women and religious minorities from all over the country. A political party or a coalition must secure 172 seats to obtain and preserve a majority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament of Victoria</span> Bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria

The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. It has a fused executive drawn from members of both chambers. The parliament meets at Parliament House in the state capital Melbourne. The current Parliament was elected on 24 November 2018, sworn in on 19 December 2018 and is the 59th parliament in Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario</span> Parliamentary position of the legislature of Ontario, Canada

The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario is the presiding officer of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President of the Victorian Legislative Council</span>

The President of the Victorian Legislative Council, also known as the presiding officer of the council, is the presiding officer of the Victorian Legislative Council, the upper house of the Parliament of Victoria and equivalent to the President of the Australian Senate. When there is a vacancy in the office of president, a new president is elected by the members of the council from among its number. The president ceases to hold that office if they cease to be a member of the council, and can be removed at any time by a vote of the members. The current president is Nazih Elasmar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia</span>

The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is the presiding officer of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.

A committee of the whole is a meeting of a legislative or deliberative assembly using procedural rules that are based on those of a committee, except that in this case the committee includes all members of the assembly. As with other (standing) committees, the activities of a committee of the whole are limited to considering and making recommendations on matters that the assembly has referred to it; it cannot take up other matters or vote directly on the assembly's business. The purpose of a committee of the whole is to relax the usual limits on debate, allowing a more open exchange of views without the urgency of a final vote. Debates in a committee of the whole may be recorded but are often excluded from the assembly's minutes. After debating, the committee submits its conclusions to the assembly and business continues according to the normal rules.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland</span>

The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland is elected by the members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly to preside over sittings of the Assembly and to maintain orderly proceedings. The Speaker must be a member of the Legislative Assembly. The position is currently held by Curtis Pitt, a former Treasurer of Queensland who was elected to the post on 13 February 2018.

The Speaker of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the presiding officer of the Legislative Assembly, New South Wales's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is Jonathan O'Dea, who was elected on 7 May 2019. Traditionally a partisan office, filled by the governing party of the time, O'Dea replaced the previous Liberal Speaker Shelley Hancock, following the 2019 state election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka</span> Presiding officer of the Parliament of Sri Lanka

The Speaker of the Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the presiding officer of the chamber. The current Speaker of the Parliament is Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in office since 20 August 2020. The Speaker fulfills a number of important functions in relation to the operation of the House, which is based upon the British Westminster Parliamentary system.

The Speaker of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly is the presiding officer in the Legislative Assembly. The office has existed since the creation of the Legislative Assembly in 1890 under the Constitution Act 1889. The 31st and current Speaker is Labor MLA Michelle Roberts, who has held the role since the 2021 state election.

The President of the Western Australian Legislative Council, also known as the Presiding Officer of the Council, is the presiding officer of the Western Australian Legislative Council, the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia. The position is analogous to that of the President of the Australian Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Brooks (politician)</span> Australian politician

Colin William Brooks is an Australian politician. He has been a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 2006, representing the electorate of Bundoora. He is currently the Minister for Child Protection and Family Services and Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers since June 2022.

The President of the New South Wales Legislative Council is the presiding officer of the upper house of the Parliament of New South Wales, the Legislative Council. The presiding officer of the lower house is the speaker of the Legislative Assembly. The role of President has generally been a partisan office, filled by the governing party of the time. As of May 2021, the president is Matthew Mason-Cox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarawak State Legislative Assembly</span> Unicameral legislature of the Malaysian state of Sarawak

The Sarawak State Legislative Assembly is the legislative chamber of the unicameral legislature of the Malaysian state of Sarawak; the Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Sarawak forms the other part of the legislature. The Assembly is modelled after the traditions of the Westminster parliamentary system, which originates from the practices of the British Parliament. The executive branch of government is drawn from the elected members of the Assembly. The State Legislative Assembly sits at the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building located in Petra Jaya in Kuching, the state capital.

References

  1. "Legislative Assembly - Former Speakers". Parliament of Victoria . Retrieved 2 September 2011.