Thursday, 19 February 2026

Wendy Lovell: On a point of order, President, I want to make a formal complaint about an incident in the gallery last night, in which Mr McCracken and I were both abused by a person from the gallery while we were in our workplace. It was intimidation, I did feel threatened and I was given no protection from the Chair. The person should have been removed from the Parliament and banned, as people who have yelled out from the gallery in the lower house have. The attendants were trying to quieten that person down, but the Chair did not help the attendant to bring that person under control. We are in our workplace, and we should not have to put up with bullying and intimidation from the gallery.

The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Ms Lovell. I heard some murmuring, but I did not know what was going on until you approached me. The person had gone. I did speak to one of the MLCs that sponsored those people coming in, after you spoke to me. Our expectation is that the people that sponsor the crowds that come in, particularly as it seems to be that with every petition there is a crowd in here, investigate them. We will follow it up. I am not too sure if there is some sort of footage that we can use to identify that person, but I am happy to follow that up and see if we can. I am happy to ban someone from here for a period of time if they have interrupted proceedings. I will follow it up.

Wendy Lovell: Thank you, President The person yelled out several times. He yelled out twice when he was over there at Mr McCracken when he was speaking. He then yelled from over here while Mr McCracken was speaking, before he started to abuse me. There were two interjections at me from the gallery, so it was going on over a sustained period of time.

The PRESIDENT: Actually, at the time I was a bit confused because I thought they were people that may have some angst towards the government, and I thought there might have been some murmuring towards government. That is why I did not identify that it may have been directed towards Mr McCracken. I could look at the video footage, if there is some there, so that we can identify that. But as I said, I heard some murmurings. This is the thing about –

David Davis interjected.

The PRESIDENT: No, but we want people to come into the gallery. We want people to come into the gallery. MPs make impassioned speeches, and a lot of them look towards the gallery when they make these speeches. Some people may not be able to control themselves, but they should control themselves, and I am 100 per cent big on that.

Joe McCracken: On the point of order, I might be able to assist in tracking down who this person is. I was doing my adjournment speech at the time, and I think it was after the debate on the petition that was here last night. Not to try and cast aspersions on anyone, but I assume it was one of the people that was here for that particular debate. I could not exactly hear what was said to me because I was obviously doing my adjournment speech, but I did hear the tone of it and it was aggressive. Ms Lovell alerted me to that, and I thank her for that, but I do think it is worth following up.

The PRESIDENT: I am happy to, Mr McCracken. As I said, I heard some murmuring, and I was happy people were leaving. I heard some murmuring, and I, rightly or wrongly, thought they were not attributing it towards your contribution because I assumed they may have had some angst towards the government rather than the opposition. So maybe one should never assume anything, particularly as I would think it would be very unfair if it was towards you, because the contribution from your side of the chamber was very much championing their thoughts. I apologise, Mr McCracken, if I misconstrued the attitude. If it was towards you, I actually would be surprised, and probably it was somebody who might have been confused.

Wendy Lovell: On a point of order, President, I do not think it matters whether the aggression was aimed at the opposition or at the government. There are rules about the gallery being silent, and I just think that we are allowing those standards to drop too much, allowing participation. The lower house certainly have not done that. People have been banned from the gallery for having signs. People have been banned from the gallery for yelling out. A person who was accompanying a group that came down from Wodonga, a doctor, actually yelled out from the gallery. The staff member of the MP who had signed them in was banned from Parliament for six months because of that incident, and that staff member was not even with them; he had been instructed by the attendants to go and look after another group that were in Queens Hall. So it is not about who it was at or who it was not at, it is about keeping control in the gallery.

The PRESIDENT: It is not a point of order. You can write to the Procedure Committee. I have got to say I really like that people come in here and watch the debates. I like that, and there is no way I will guarantee you there will not be a hiccup in the future. I think it is great that people come in here and watch these debates. If we want to get all oingy boingy about it, then I will direct members not to put their contributions towards the gallery in the future when their groups are in, because that does not help. But I am pretty relaxed about that as well. If we want to mirror exactly what is happening in the Assembly, let us have a conversation in the Procedure Committee. Let us have that conversation, and I will have a conversation with other people in this chamber about whether that is the way we want to go in this chamber going forward.

Wendy Lovell: On a point of order, President, we all enjoy people coming into the gallery. We all want to bring our people into the gallery, but safe workplaces are important.

Sonja Terpstra: Further to the point of order, President, there is no point of order, and I think we should move on.

The PRESIDENT: Yes. There is no point of order.

Wendy Lovell: You don’t support safe workplaces?

The PRESIDENT: I am actually pretty sick of this. I will just reiterate: I personally really like the access to this chamber for people to be able to listen.

Wendy Lovell: Nobody is disputing that.

The PRESIDENT: Well, I personally appreciate it. I have told you the action I will take. We will see where that leads.