Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, firstly, I congratulate you on your elevation to the chair. We share an electoral boundary and I know you from not only here but also joint activities that occur between our electorates from time to time. I congratulate you on your elevation.

I simply want to make one point in rebuttal to the member for Scullin. I remind the parliament that at the start of this parliament the Speaker was a Labor member—namely, the member for Scullin—the Deputy Speaker was a Liberal member—namely, the member for Fisher, nominated by the government—and the Second Deputy Speaker was a National Party member—namely, the member for Maranoa. So that was good enough for the Labor Party two years ago at the start of this parliament. I simply make that point by way of rebuttal to the proposition being put here that this is about principle and there are no politics involved.

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