Kenneth Maurice Smith (born 30 December 1944) is an Australian politician who was the member for Bass in the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presidin ...

from 2002 to 2014. He was

Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly The Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly is the presiding officer of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, the lower house of the Parliament of Victoria. The presiding officer of the upper house of the Parliament of Victoria, the Victorian ...

from 21 December 2010 to 4 February 2014. Smith was a

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before he entered the

Parliament of Victoria The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly an ...

in 1988, winning the Legislative Council seat of South-Eastern Province for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. During his time in the Legislative Council, Smith served on the

backbench In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...

, although after being returned at the 1996 election he served as government Whip. When the Kennett government lost power in 1999, Smith continued on as Opposition whip. The redistribution prior to the 2002 election abolished his upper house province, and Smith decided to contest the new Lower House seat of Bass—basically a reconfigured Gippsland West. He faced Susan Davies, the independent MP for Gippsland West. While the election was a disaster for the Liberals, Smith provided them with their only gain, winning the seat after Davies was overtaken by

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

on the primary vote. Had Davies finished second on the first count, she would have likely picked up enough Labor

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to retain this ancestrally Liberal seat. Smith served as Shadow Minister for Gaming and Shadow Minister for Fisheries. In 2008 Smith put forward a private member's bill that would allow euthanasia in Victoria. The bill was similar to the Dying With Dignity Act in

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

in the United States, and generated considerable controversy. The bill was defeated in the Victorian Legislative Council. In 2009, Smith was unopposed for preselection for the seat of Bass and was re-endorsed by the Liberal Party as their candidate On 21 December 2010, Smith was elected unopposed as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly for the 57th Victorian Parliament. On 19 September 2013, he was forced to use his tiebreaking vote to carry a motion to suspend Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews for disorderly conduct. This ensued when Andrews accused Smith of bias when Smith ordered the removal of posters showing Liberal-turned-independent Geoff Shaw—whose vote was keeping the Coalition in office as a minority government—alongside government ministers, but ruled Premier

Denis Napthine Denis Vincent Napthine (born 6 March 1952) is a former Australian politician who was the 47th Premier of Victoria. Napthine was a Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, representing the electoral district of Portland fro ...

's claims of incompetence on the part of the previous Labor government were in order. Andrews refused Smith's order to leave the chamber for an hour and a half, prompting Smith to have the Serjeant-At-Arms remove him. Smith then "named" Andrews for disorderly conduct. With Shaw out of the chamber at the time, the vote on suspending Andrews was deadlocked at 40-40, forcing Smith to vote in favour of the motion and resulting in a Labor members walkout of Parliament.Daniel Andrews suspended from Parliament for three days
/ref> In late 2013, Shaw declared that he had no confidence in Smith's speakership, after the Speaker had referred allegations regarding Shaw's use of parliamentary entitlements to the Victorian Ombudsman. From this time, 44 members (43 of them from the Labor opposition) lacked confidence in Mr Smith continuing as Speaker, with 43 members as well as Mr Smith himself maintaining confidence. On 4 February 2014, Smith stood down as Speaker but announced he would remain an MP until the state election due in November, when he would retire.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Ken 1944 births Living people Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Speakers of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Members of the Order of Australia Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Victoria 21st-century Australian politicians People from Ormond, Victoria Politicians from Melbourne