A rarely used parliamentary convention forced ACT Speaker Shane Rattenbury to defend his impartiality during question time.
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Liberal MLA Jeremy Hanson, who has been a critic of the Greens MLA holding office as well as shadow portfolios, quizzed Mr Rattenbury about role separation and quoted the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Harry Jenkins, who in his resignation speech last month said his departure would allow him to become involved in party political matters.
''My desire is to be able to participate in policy and parliamentary debate, and this would be incompatible with continuing in the role of Speaker,'' Mr Jenkins said at the time.
Mr Hanson asked if Mr Rattenbury would resign ''to avoid the real or perceived view that you are in breach of standing order 275 and are behaving in a manner inconsistent with Westminster and House of Representatives practice?''
But the ACT Speaker said he would not be stepping down from the role nor as the Greens spokesman on climate change.
''There are different practices in different parliaments across the country and in the house of reps with 150 members there is always somebody to just be the speaker; in the ACT, members have multiple roles,'' Mr Rattenbury said.
''It reflects the nature of a small parliament - the Norfolk Island parliament only has nine members and the speaker there regularly participates.''
He faced a similar attack last week and has also received criticism from Labor MLA John Hargreaves over his dual roles.
Mr Rattenbury said, ''It has been raised in annual reports hearings at least for the last two years and of course it has been raised in this chamber on occasion.
''I see a very clear distinction in my mind between when I am sitting in the speaker's chair and when I am advocating for the issues on which I was elected to this place.''