Billy Gordon cut a lonely figure when Queensland parliament resumed on Tuesday, after what the opposition leader, Lawrence Springborg, complained was the “longest hiatus” for a new government in his 26 years in politics.
It must have been the longest five weeks of Gordon’s life.
A cascade of revelations, culminating in former partners going on national TV to detail alleged physical abuse and unpaid child support, had forced him to quit the Labor government benches, but not the parliament.
Gordon took his place alone on the other side of the chamber, behind a Liberal National party that, having helped usher this damaging information into the public realm, was determined to make him a pariah.
Independent MPs who end up in the crossfire of either major party in Queensland have been known to shed tears years later simply recounting the experience.
Things did not begin well for Gordon. His complaint about Springborg leaking child support documents containing his children’s names to the media was dismissed. He was dumped from the environment and agriculture committee. And his widely anticipated statement to explain why he had not previously misled the house over unpaid child support was abruptly cut off.
Speaker Peter Wellington told the rookie MP he had begun to “stray” into attacks on his political opponents, forbidden at that time by the quirks of parliamentary procedure.
By then, Katter’s Australian party (KAP) MP Robbie Katter had shown up to remind Gordon he had a few remaining allies.
The LNP spent much of Tuesday trying to establish that the vote of the second Indigenous man in state parliament – who did not tell his own party about his teenage burglaries, his unpaid child support or domestic violence allegations before he was elected – was “tainted”.
It moved for a change in voting rules to allow crossbench votes to be telegraphed so the LNP could sacrifice one of its own MPs to “nullify” Gordon if he voted with them.
Labor, which would rather see Gordon quit and take its chances in a by-election but needs his vote in the meantime to be assured of passing laws in a hung parliament, predictably voted against.
By Wednesday afternoon, Springborg was convinced that Gordon was not as lonely a figure as first thought and that Labor’s rejection of him was superficial.
He accused premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – who once said she was “revolted” by Gordon’s actions and called for him to quit parliament – of “turning a blind eye” to her own MPs “welcoming [Gordon] back to the fold with gusto”.
“Certainly the circumstances of backslapping, the circumstances of camaraderie, the circumstances of empathy, the circumstances of effusive handshakes that go beyond politeness, indicate that these members of parliament on the other side certainly are not standing on principle,” Springborg said.
“You cannot have it both ways. You cannot on one hand say the member for Cook is not suitable to be in this parliament … and yet on the other [be] happy to accept his vote.”
But the clearest indication of the value in Gordon’s “tainted” vote came from the two KAP MPs also voting down the LNP’s motion to marginalise Gordon.
KAP alone has withheld from moral condemnation of Gordon, Katter telling ABC radio it was a case of “let’s give this person a break … and wait until the jury is out”.
This allows KAP to work openly with Gordon to leverage common interests for their rural constituents without inviting accusations of hypocrisy.
The major parties spent Wednesday afternoon vying for high moral ground as the LNP used the government’s domestic violence initiatives as further grounds to probe its handling of the complaints against Gordon.
Liberal-National party MP Tracy Davis name-checked Labor’s “trust your instincts” campaign, promoting the counselling service DV Connect, when asking community services minister Shannon Fentiman about her response to abuse claims first sent to her by Gordon’s former partner.
“Was the first instinct of the minister to connect the woman to [domestic violence counselling hotline] DV Connect or to pick up the phone and ring the executive building?” Davis said.
Fentiman replied by taking a swipe at Springborg’s release of “confidential details of [Gordon’s] children”.
She acknowledged the allegations against Gordon were “serious” and subject to a police investigation that “needs to be completed”.
“I find the ongoing public dissection and the cheap political point-scoring unhelpful,” Fentiman said.
Springborg asked Palaszczuk to explain her remarks, when announcing new funding for a domestic violence counselling service that morning, that there were “background circumstances” to be taken into account in cases of abuse.
Katter had earlier told the ABC that Gordon’s background growing up in “a predominantly Aboriginal community” meant it was “very hard for us in mainstream media to cast judgment” on the allegations against him.
But Palaszczuk replied to Springborg by talking about her idea for a special domestic violence court, which was inspired by a conversation with the Australian of the year, campaigner Rosie Batty, whose son was killed by her former husband.
“When I personally spoke to Rosie Batty, her story touched my heart,” Palaszczuk said.
“I spoke to her at length about how she felt let down by the system, she felt let down going from court to court.”
The premier and the opposition leader both ended up leaving parliament early to attend a candlelight vigil for victims of domestic violence.
Meanwhile, in an example of a core KAP agenda coming to the fore in a hung parliament, the LNP introduced a motion to support a mandate for ethanol in petrol.
Katter cited a recent al-Qaeda newsletter while arguing for the importance of energy security and moving an amendment to set a 10% ethanol requirement in statewide fuel use.
Labor’s agriculture minister, Bill Byrne, accused the LNP of a “cynical move to ingratiate themselves” with KAP. The government moved a different amendment to broaden the approach to biofuels and acknowledge Labor already had a bill to set an ethanol mandate in train.
KAP’s amendment was defeated. Labor’s amendment passed with the support of Gordon and the independent speaker Wellington’s vote – although KAP voted against it.
It remains to be seen to what extent Gordon untethers his political allegiance to a government that cannot openly acknowledge how critical his support is.
