Wollongong MP Noreen Hay says her promotion to Labor Party whip in the NSW lower house will raise the profile of the city.
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The announcement was made during Labor’s first caucus meeting of the new Parliament on Wednesday, confirming earlier speculation Ms Hay was poised to fill the ‘‘team manager’’ role.
‘‘It puts me in a fairly good position, I think, to negotiate with the government in relation to my electorate,’’ Ms Hay said.
‘‘I am very pleased and ... I’m delighted in the confidence that’s been shown to me by both the leader and my parliamentary colleagues.’’
According to the Parliamentary Education Office, the term ‘‘whip’’ is derived from the sport of fox-hunting in England, where the whipper-in was the person who whipped all the hunting hounds into a pack, pointed them in the right direction to chase the fox and ensured the pack did not stray.
The whip organises members’ attendance in the house and their participation in divisions and debates.
They are also responsible for counting and recording votes in a division and ensuring party decisions are carried out.
Ms Hay was tipped as the likely holder of the ALP position late last week, prompting some Labor sources to voice their dismay at the message her appointment would send about the party’s future direction.
However, the Wollongong MP said she didn’t give a ‘‘great deal of serious consideration’’ to anonymous sources.
‘‘It [the whip appointment] was a unanimous decision and there were no dissenting voices so ... if there were those concerns I wasn’t aware of them,’’ she said.
‘‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating ...there was no deal because I made the point that you’d have to wait for the election because [positions] such as the whip [are] determined by the parliamentary caucus.
‘‘It was a unanimous support decision, for which I’m really grateful.’’
Ms Hay, the convener of the Right faction in the Labor caucus, is understood to have shifted her support to Luke Foley during ithe Labor leadership contest in December.
Mr Foley was this week re-elected unopposed as the party’s leader, while Linda Burney will continue to serve as his deputy.