Speaker Slipper now a Government responsibility

Updated November 25, 2011 14:12:00

''In the United States, they call it the Pottery Barn rule - you break it, you own it.

The Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said precisely that to former president George W Bush in 2002 as a warning of the consequences of going to war in Iraq.

Powell, according to Washington Post journalist, Bob Woodward, said to the president, "You are going to be the owner of 25 million people. You will own their hopes, their aspirations and their problems."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard should have been paying attention. She and the Government now own the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Peter Slipper, and all of his problems. Whatever he has done in the past, whatever he might do in the future is now their shared responsibility.''

Barrie Cassidy is the presenter of ABC programs Insiders and Offsiders.

Topics: federal-parliament, parliament, federal-government, government-and-politics

First posted November 25, 2011 08:00:05

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