{"id":10863,"date":"2021-03-30T04:16:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T04:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=10863"},"modified":"2021-03-30T04:16:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T04:16:39","slug":"new-president-of-the-nsw-legislative-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/03\/30\/new-president-of-the-nsw-legislative-council\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW PRESIDENT OF THE NSW LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NSW Government congratulates Natasha Maclaren-Jones MLC on her election as the NSW Legislative Council\u2019s 22nd President.
\nThe Presidency became vacant after John Ajaka MLC announced his retirement and the House was compelled to elect a new President before conducting any further business.
\nLeader of the Government in the Legislative Council Don Harwin said Ms Maclaren-Jones was an outstanding and highly competent member of the Legislative Council and would make a fair and impartial President.
\n\u201cMs Maclaren-Jones has the demonstrated temperament, character and expertise to be the President of this House. She was elected to the House 10 years ago in 2011 and has served for a decade with distinction.
\n\u201cAs Government Whip, Ms Maclaren-Jones has been remarkably capable, with a flair for organisation of government members and also has shown a level of leadership to ensure the Chamber and its processes function effectively,\u201d Mr Harwin said.
\nThe Government\u2019s position, reinforced by legal advice from the Crown Solicitor, is that Natasha Maclaren-Jones is the legitimately elected President of the Legislative Council. The Government relies on the construction of the standing orders \u2013 specifically standing order 13(2) which says,
\n\u201cWhen 2 members have been proposed as President<\/strong>, ballot papers will be distributed by the Clerks to all members in their places. Members must write on the ballot paper the name of the candidate for whom they wish to vote, and deposit it in the ballot box provided by the Clerk.\u00a0The candidate who has the greater number of votes is to be declared elected President, and will be conducted to the Chair<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em>
\nThe Government notes that standing order 13(3) \u2013 under which the Clerk declared the ballots on Wednesday \u2013 only applies where there are\u00a0more<\/em>\u00a0than two candidates.
\nThe legal advice received by the Government from the Crown Solicitor has been sent to the Clerk of the Parliaments and distributed to members of the Legislative Council.
\nMinister Harwin said, \u201cThe Standing Orders are clear. In the case of a ballot where there are only two candidates, the candidate with the greater number of votes is to be declared elected President.\u201d
\nDeputy Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council Sarah Mitchell congratulated Ms Maclaren-Jones.
\n\u201cMs Maclaren-Jones is a champion for female representation \u2013 not only in Parliament but in politics generally. She is a great role model, especially for the next generation of women and is an exceptional choice for the Presidency of the Legislative Council,\u201d Ms Mitchell said.
\n\u201cHer wealth of experience includes five years as a Temporary Chair of Committees, working with boards of women’s refuges in the Northern Beaches community and being a part of the Parliamentary Friends for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NSW Government congratulates Natasha Maclaren-Jones MLC on her election as the NSW Legislative Council\u2019s 22nd President. The Presidency became vacant after John Ajaka MLC announced his retirement and the House was compelled to elect a new President before conducting any further business. Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council Don Harwin said Ms … Continue reading “NEW PRESIDENT OF THE NSW LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}