A consequence of the Bill of Rights Act 1689 is that the proceedings in parliament are free and the right to free speech, which has the peculiar specific title of 'parliamentary privilege', is absolute. The rules of defamation, racism, slander, untruth, public secrecy, incitement etc. simply do not apply in the same way that they do out in the real world.
As the normal rules of etiquette, the normal rules of law, and the normal rules of common sense do not apply, discussion within Westminster parliaments is almost universally loud and rude. In fact, the NSW Legislative Assembly has the nickname of "The Bearpit" because the Members are so unruly. The only rules of etiquette and decency which apply are the rules which the parliament has decided for itself in a series of Standing Orders and even then, Members of Westminster parliaments still cross the lines of normality on a regular basis. There are many stories of Members of Westminster parliaments bringing in strange props, or being dressed in very strange attire.
One of the weirdest incidents of a Members of Parliaments being dressed in very strange attire, happened on November 25th, 1985 when a Member turned up in a chicken suit and sat in a place that wasn't his according to the standard seating arrangement.
The Hawke Government presented the Petroleum Revenue Bill 1985; which was put forward to make changes in the Federal take of excise on petrol at the pump. This was one of those rather boring and otherwise mundane pieces of legislation that would have gone through the first, second and third readings with almost no fanfare at all. However, the Parliament came to an uproariously grinding halt in proceedings when a man in a chicken suit walked into the House of Representatives and assumed a place on the government front bench.
The Speaker of the House, Harry Jenkins, then immediately ordered the Sergeant-At-Arms to remove the "chicken" from the floor of the chamber; citing that the standing orders do not permit strangers to sit on the benches in the chamber. Since the chicken refused to identify himself, he left.
I have seen members arrive in hi-vis clothing to make a point about working conditions, I have seen one member arrive in a niqab to make a rather absurd point about the attire of Muslims, I have seen members of parliament bring in props which have included, coal, scissors, a clipboard, umbrella, fishing pole, cans of baked beans and a jar of jam, and I have even seen a member of the House be ejected for refusing to take off a top hat on the floor. The only reason that I found out about this was because of one photo in a Twitter account and I wanted to know more. This chicken on the floor of the House of Representatives is probably the strangest stranger to have ever sat in the House.
I can only imagine that on the Monday, that the Members of Parliament were amused, bemused and confused by what had happened and left work that day wondering what the jinkies had happened. I can also imagine the abject flapdoodle that must have happened when they read who had been unmasked in Tuesday's newspaper. This was not a member of the government but Tasmanian Liberal Party member, Bruce Goodluck, who made a self-confession to the Mercury; which is possibly one of the very rare occasions when they broke a story.
On the Tuesday, Bruce Goodluck took his place in his normal place in the House and the Speaker, Harry, Jenkins said he was disgusted at the "outrageous behavior of Monday night". The Mercury in its reporting states that when questioned why Goodluck entered the chamber in a chicken suit and on the wrong side of the chamber, he replied "I don't remember".
As the House of Representatives is a place of political theatre and as the old chamber was so small, Question Time in the House on the Tuesday devolved into a rather corny cornucopia of corn about the conniption. When you have chicken in the corn, then the corn can't grow, no more. The Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, was keen to play up to the absurdity of the situation and said: "I don't think it was an opposition member because it wasn't headless."
Searching Hansard for an incident which went by with practically no words being said is notoriously difficult, though it made the top of proceedings for Question Time:
Mr SPEAKER —Order! Honourable members will have become aware of an incident in the chamber last night when a person dressed as a chicken entered the chamber and sat on the ministerial bench. Although a number of honourable members have been approached by officers of the House in an attempt to identify the offender, there has been a universal denial of any direct knowledge of the incident. I wish to indicate to the House my disgust that any honourable member would show so little respect for the institution that the honourable member would behave in this way. In addition, one of the chamber officers was spoken to by an honourable member in an extremely abusive manner in the course of his inquiries. This is deplorable conduct on the part of the honourable member. Those concerned in the incident are guilty of bringing the House into disrepute. I hope that my views on this matter have the support of the majority of honourable members and will help to prevent any similar outrageous behaviour in the future.
- Hansard, 26th Nov 1985
What makes this story even more extraordinary as opposed to being just silly, is that it was the Mercury newspaper in Hobart which broke the story open and not a media outlet on the mainland. I mention all of this because newspapers like the Hobart Mercury don't tend to have their archives digitised and placed online. I had to track down crumbs and look through a roll of microfiche in the library to find out anything about this story, some 37 years' later.
This little story about a chicken in parliament, also highlights the importance of public libraries. Commercial outlets simply refuse to make their archives available to the public without them paying a fee. This story in particular is trivial but public libraries, in the role of public archivists, ensure that information which might be relevant to current day events, is at least available in some form.
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