Evaluation of providing interpreter services
1. After Geoff Shaw’s departure, the Liberal Government held 44 seats in the 88-seat lower house of state parliament (while the Labor Party held 43 seats).
2. The Liberal Party needed to provide a speaker for the house, according to the convention that states the Government always installs one of its own members in the speaker’s chair. Once the speaker was removed from the voting, the Liberal Government only controlled 43 voting seats in a house of 88.
3. With the speaker removed from voting and Shaw sitting on the cross-benches, the Liberal Government only controlled 43 voting seats in a house of 88. If Shaw chose to vote with the Labor opposition he had the ability to create a situation where the Government would be unable to get a majority vote in the lower house.
4. The early dissolution of the lower house of state parliament in 2013 was very unlikely because of 2003 constitutional amendments implemented by the Bracks Government. These amendments created a requirement for fixed four-year terms in which the only trigger for an early dissolution is a successful ‘no confidence’ vote. However, even if 44 non-Government members of the house did vote in favour of no confidence, this no confidence motion wouldalso be unable to pass if the speaker was to casts a deciding vote in favour of the governing party. Therefore, no election could be triggered.