Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I congratulate you, Madam Speaker Burke, on being the second female elected to the Speaker's role this place. You certainly deserve it. I have worked with you for a number of years now, and you have always brought dignity and a spirit of cooperation to the role. Meeting every morning, as we have in the past, we run through the blue to see what is coming up in case some 'blues' occur in the House, and we have been able to discuss them in the role of Speaker and Deputy Speaker as we should do.

I thank my nominators, the member for Sturt and the member for New England, for their confidence in me. I also thank the House for showing confidence in me and my ability to take over the role of Deputy Speaker. I am one of those lucky people here tonight whose wife is up there in the gallery. I am not sure that she recognises the person you are speaking about! It is quite by chance that my wife is here to experience this tonight; and I know, Madam Speaker, that your family could not be with you.

Madam Speaker, I have worked as deputy to you, but I think we all learnt a great deal from Harry Jenkins. He was in many ways a mentor to many people in this place, including those on the Speaker's panel. I think we were able to bring the quiet confidence and the quiet respect that Harry instilled in us as his two deputies at the start of this parliament, and we can certainly bring those things in this role that we both have now.

I thank the former Speaker, the member for Fisher, for his very kind words about me today. Unfortunately, I was not in the chamber at the time. I was at the Telstra function here tonight, lobbying Telstra to get more mobile phone coverage in western Queensland—in a quiet and dignified way. They did listen to me. I do thank the member for Fisher for his comments in very kindly speaking about me tonight.

I want to assure the House that in my role as the Deputy Speaker I will be, as I have always been, impartial and will make sure that you are all heard in silence, though that is not always possible. There are standing orders that govern the role that we take in this place, as you know, Madam Speaker, and it is the one that I believe gives this chamber the great power that it has. I respect the standing orders. Those standing orders that have been amended a little in this parliament have only made this a better place.

I certainly look forward to working with all of you in this chamber. Thank you for the confidence you have shown in me tonight. I can assure you I will not be letting you down. To the Leader of the House, all I can say is that I have taken former Speaker Jenkins to Birdsville, I have taken the Leader of the Opposition to the Birdsville races, but we still have your shirt, which has hamburger juice all down the front, to auction one day. I hope it will be worth enough money to enable us to seal a few kilometres of road out in western Queensland. I thank the House.

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