Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

It is my great honour to second the nomination of the member for Mackellar as Speaker of this House. The member for Mackellar was the first member of parliament that I met on my first day in parliament 20½ years ago. I arrived at the Senate chamber to see my great friend Amanda Vanstone. I walked in as a fresh-faced 25-year-old member of parliament like many colleagues on this side of the House and the other side of the House. I came through the doors. I had been questioned by the attendants as to whether I was a member of parliament, because I had left my badge at home in my flat—that is a common occurrence for many new members of parliament—and the first person I ran into was the then Senator Bishop. She clasped me by both forearms, kissed me on both cheeks and said, 'You and I are going to become great friends.' I was a little sceptical at the time!

But 21 years later it is my great privilege and honour to second her nomination as Speaker in this chamber. There is nobody else in this chamber who will do the job as well in the 44th Parliament as Speaker of the House. The member for Mackellar is knowledgeable, experienced, intelligent and effortlessly charming. And she is as tough as a Sherman tank, as she has described herself over the years. In fact, she used to have a model of a Sherman tank on her desk when she was a minister. I hope she will be generous, particularly to her nominator and seconder on this side of the chamber. I expect her to be firm, especially with the opposition. Sometimes, I think, she will be firm with the government—and that will only be because it is appropriate at the time.

Laurie Oakes said in the newspapers on the weekend that it would be a situation of the poacher becoming the gamekeeper for the member for Mackellar to be the Speaker. My advice to the fourth estate is that poachers usually make very good gamekeepers, and I commend her nomination as Speaker of the House.

The Clerk: Does the honourable member for Mackellar accept the nomination?

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