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Speaker 12 February 2008 to 19 July 2010; 28 September 2010 to 24 November 2011
Australian Labor Party

Harry Jenkins (b.1952) served as Speaker of the House from 2008 to 2011, capping a 27-year career in politics.¹ In taking on the role of Speaker, Jenkins followed the same path that his father had 25 years earlier, the only father-son Speaker duo in Parliament’s history.

Born in Melbourne, Jenkins’s association with politics began early when his father, Dr Harry Jenkins Sr, was elected Labor Member for Scullin in 1969. Like his father, Jenkins began studying medicine before later switching to part-time studies in science at the Australian National University. He became a public servant upon graduating, later serving as councillor and president of the Whittlesea Shire Council in Victoria. On his father’s retirement in 1986, he won Labor preselection for the seat of Scullin and held the seat for Labor at the ensuing by-election.

Jenkins soon took a keen interest in committee work, serving on a variety of committees. As Deputy Chair of Committees from 1990 to 1993, he committed to mastering the standing orders, which was later rewarded when he was elected as Deputy Speaker in 1993.

When the Howard Government came to power in 1996, Jenkins was elected Second Deputy Speaker, a position he held throughout Labor’s tenure in Opposition. When Kevin Rudd returned the Labor Party to government in 2007, Jenkins was elected as Speaker unopposed.

The first day of his Speakership saw Jenkins preside over a prolonged debate about reforming the standing orders to allow the House to sit on a Friday. While he later said that this overhaul of the standing orders was a ‘textbook example of how not to achieve reform of parliamentary procedure’ after Friday sittings were abandoned, he did oversee more successful reforms to proceedings. These included a definitive series of rulings on the use of props in the Chamber and the introduction of a screen in the Chamber displaying information to contextualise proceedings.

In 2010, when Labor formed minority government under Julia Gillard, Jenkins was re-elected as Speaker. Over the course of the Parliament, Labor’s control of the House became increasingly delicate. In November 2011, he announced he was stepping down from the role so that he could ‘participate in policy and parliamentary debate’.² Opposition member Peter Slipper subsequently took on the role of Speaker, bolstering the Government’s numbers on the floor. Jenkins later announced that he would retire at the following election.

Since retiring in 2013, Jenkins has remained engaged in public life. After being appointed an AO in 2014, he served on an independent panel reviewing members’ entitlements. He has since assisted UN initiatives relating to women in parliaments and participated in observer groups overseeing elections throughout the Pacific.