Clive Palmer criticised for attack on Senate clerk Rosemary Laing
Nick Efstathiadis

By political reporter Louise Yaxley, staff

Clive Palmer and Dr Rosemary Laing Photo: Palmer United Leader Clive Palmer and Clerk of the Senate Dr Rosemary Laing. (AAP: Alan Porritt)

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Independent senator Nick Xenophon has accused Clive Palmer of being a "bully and a coward" and called on him to apologise for his attack on a senior Senate official.

Members of the Upper House have leapt to the defence of Senate clerk Rosemary Laing after Mr Palmer said she should "get out of that job" if she was not prepared to act on his instructions.

The Government's attempts to pass the carbon tax repeal legislation suffered a setback last week after the Palmer United Party (PUP) withdrew support, following advice about an amendment from Dr Laing.

She had informed the party that a PUP amendment to the carbon tax repeal legislation was unconstitutional - advice that Mr Palmer disputed.

The legislation will go before the Senate for a third time today, with strong indications that it will pass.

Senator Xenophon says advice from the Senate clerk is always "impeccable" and Mr Palmer should be ashamed of his comments.

"These are the remarks of a bully and a coward and Clive Palmer ought to apologise," he said.

"He simply doesn't know what he's talking about and he is diminishing himself rather than diminishing the institution of the Senate.

"His attack on the clerk of the Senate - someone who cannot defend herself because of the protocols attached to that position - is nothing short of cowardly."

Palmer compares Laing's actions to Stalinist Russia

Mr Palmer denies he yelled at Dr Laing last Thursday, but says he threatened to seek a High Court injunction.

"She can't interfere and stop them from doing it - that's what it boils down to. Otherwise you get a bureaucrat being able to veto legislation and we don't want that. That's what happens in Stalinist Russia," Mr Palmer said.

"We don't seek her advice - we seek to put things to the Senate and she's inconsequential to us as to what she thinks. It's what the Australian people think and what they've elected us to do.

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"Our party will always want to put things that we decide, not what the clerks decide.

"She's not a member of our party, she hasn't been elected to Parliament, she's employed by the Parliament to draft legislation in accordance with instructions and she can't really refuse those instructions."

Mr Palmer added: "If that's her job, well, she has to get out of that job".

It is an extraordinary attack from a member of the Lower House on the respected position of Senate clerk - especially when the new PUP senators are likely to need the advice.

Dr Laing is not commenting on Mr Palmer's remarks, and Senate president Stephen Parry is not commenting on reports that a complaint has been made about Mr Palmer's behaviour.

Palmer's behaviour is 'unacceptable'

"In my experience it doesn't matter what your politics are, the Senate staff are incredibly professional, they're helpful and they're impartial," said Greens leader Christine Milne.

"It's unacceptable for Mr Palmer to be calling for the resignation of the clerk of the Senate because she was providing advice that he did not want to take."

PUP said it would support the scrapping of the carbon tax if an amendment was passed that required power companies to pass on savings they made from the carbon tax repeal.

Companies that failed to pass on the savings within the first year would be forced to pay a penalty of 250 per cent of the savings to the Commonwealth.

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However, the Senate clerk informed PUP senator Glen Lazarus that the penalty could be seen as a tax, and would therefore have to pass the House of Representatives before it could be put to the Senate.

"The advice that was given to Mr Palmer was that he could not do what he wanted to do," Senator Milne said.

"The clerks are not there to be directed by senators if it is outside the rules of the Senate - that is the fact.

"These people are professionals. They are helpful, they are impartial and they are certainly not there to be abused by senators if they won't do as the senators direct them to do when it is obviously against the rules."

Democratic Labour Party senator John Madigan also heaped praise on Dr Laing.

"Rosemary Laing and her staff are, I'd say, impeccable. I've only ever found them to be helpful and professional, they're a credit to the Senate," he said.

"I'd suggest play the issue not the person. The staff of the Senate are not to be attacked and I think it's a low blow. It does Mr Palmer no credit to attack the staff of the Senate in such a way."

Senate would be 'lost' without clerk's staff

Labor senator John Faulkner spoke in the chamber yesterday to send a message to all members of the Upper House.

"We are lucky that the Senate clerk's office provides such a professional and impartial service to all senators - government, opposition, minor party and independent in this place, because I would say without their integrity we would be lost," he said.

Senator Faulkner has spent 25 years in the Upper House and he singled out the past week for special mention.

"This is the worst, the worst, most amateurish and ham-fisted chamber management I've seen since I've been here," the veteran said.

But that has not stopped senators blaming each other for last week's extraordinary scenes in the Upper House.

More on this story:

Clive Palmer criticised for attack on Senate clerk Rosemary Laing over advice on carbon tax repeal amendment - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

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