Goss forced to reinstate dumped speaker

By Bill Mason
BRISBANE Queensland Premier Wayne Goss faced his greatest political humiliation when he was forced to renominate dumped speaker Jim Fouras in the face of the threat of defeat on the floor of state parliament, as the new session opened on September 5.
Opposition MPs jeered as Goss nominated Fouras, who had previously been sacked as the ALP caucus choice for speaker in a party factional deal, in order to avoid the potential embarrassment of having Fouras re-elected on the nomination of independent Liz Cunningham and with National-Liberal Party support.
The ALP now holds state government by only one seat, with court appeals still pending on several close results. Fouras had earlier played bluff with the premier by refusing to speak publicly or privately with Goss to confirm his intentions prior to the opening of parliament.
The Labor government's back-down is a sign of Goss' loss of authority, and indicates the potential for damage to the government from any split in its ranks no matter how small.
Meanwhile, the Socialist Left faction has referred the controversy in its ranks over the content of its paper Keep Left to an internal faction committee.