Cherie Burton, the Labor MP for Kogarah, is State Parliament’s silent member: she said nothing in the chamber this year and spoke only four times in 2007.

It means that since her re-election at the March 2007 state election, Ms Burton has barely raised her voice in parliament on behalf of her 45,000 constituents.

Hansard, the official record of parliament, notes that she has spoken on four occasions in two years:

  • May 10, 2007: Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (spoke for 1.5 minutes)
  • May 31, 2007: Private Member’s Statement on Kogarah Fire Station Centenary Celebration (five minutes)
  • June 7, 2007: Question without notice on Mental Health Capital Funding Program (15 seconds)
  • June 21, 2007: Private Member’s Statement on the completion of the Blakehurst Pedestrian Footbridge (five minutes).

TOTAL speaking time: 11 minutes and 45 seconds in 100 parliamentary sitting days over a two-year period.

This compares unfavourably with two other female MPs. In the same period, Upper House Green Lee Rhiannon has spoken on 252 occasions and her colleague Sylvia Hale has recorded 241 speeches and questions.

For her toil in Macquarie Street’s ‘Bearpit’, Ms Burton is amply rewarded. As a backbencher, she receives the basic MP’s salary of $126,560 a year, plus an electoral allowance of $37,405.

As the government-appointed Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters since June 2007, she receives an extra $8,859 and an expense allowance of $8,859, bringing her annual income to $181,683.

Along with all other MPs, she received a logistical support allowance of $29,380, a lump sum payment to spend on electorate office expenses, printing and stationery.

According to the Greens democracy4sale website, her salary and other MP’s allowances come to a grand total of $211,063.

Her committee has met seven times in the past two years and she attended six of the meetings. The committee’s last meeting was eight months ago.

She was housing minister in Morris Iemma’s first Cabinet after he became premier in August 2005, but he dumped her in factional wheeling and dealing which followed the March 2007 state election.

Her unusual reticence in the chamber appears to coincide with her relegation to the backbench. The opposition is calling it a “massive dummy spit” while Labor colleagues say that she has become “withdrawn” since losing her place in Iemma’s Cabinet and being overlooked by the new Premier, Nathan Rees.

TOMORROW: Cherie Burton’s long road to the top with the help of Bob Carr, Macquarie Bank and others.