Parnell-Bressington filibuster

The Parnell-Bressington filibuster is a record-breaking filibuster that occurred in the South Australian upper house, the Legislative Council, on 8 May 2008, involving SA Greens MLC Mark Parnell and No Pokies MLC Ann Bressington.

The South Australian workers compensation scheme known as WorkCover had been suffering an underfunded liability blowout since 2000, and by 2008 was nearing toward $1 billion. Legislation created to rectify the situation meant that injured workers payments would be cut by 10 percent after 13 weeks, 20 percent after 26 weeks, and end workers compensation payments and reverting to Centrelink benefits after two and a half years, if a person is deemed to have any capacity to work. Both the governing Labor Party and the main opposition Liberal Party were supportive of the changes, and with eight members each in the 22-member upper house, numbers were not an issue. The crossbench was made up of two Family First, two No Pokies, one Democrat, and one Green.

Considering themselves the opposition to this legislation, Parnell spoke for over eight hours, with Bressington speaking for another five hours. Allowing for lunch and dinner breaks, Parnell started at 11am and finished at 11pm. Bressington went from 11pm to 4am straight. Parnell's eight-hour contribution alone set a record filibuster in South Australian parliamentary history, and combined, set a record nationally in any Australian parliament. Parnell alone fell short of the record, Albert Gardiner's effort of 12 hours and 40 minutes in the Australian Senate in 1918. The world record is held by US Senator Strom Thurmond who filibustered against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

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