Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I inform the House that the Governor-General in Council has agreed to my recommendation and appointed David Elder to be the Clerk of the House of Representatives from 1 January 2014. As mentioned by the Leader of The Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister, the Parliamentary Service Act says a person cannot be appointed as Clerk unless the Speaker is satisfied that the person has extensive knowledge of, and experience in, relevant parliamentary law, procedure and practice'. Mr Elder certainly has that. He has had a distinguished career, to this date, in the parliamentary service and he has been appointed in accordance with that act, through a rigorous process. He joined the House of Representatives in 1981 and worked on parliamentary committees, among which was that important inquiry into the banking sector in 1990. He served as Serjeant-at-Arms, Assistant Clerk (Committees) and Assistant Clerk (Table). He has been Deputy Clerk since 2010. He has been in charge of members' interests statements for this last period. He has a Master of Arts, an Executive Master of Administration and he is a Rotarian. We have just praised our outgoing Clerk, and I have every confidence that my choice in the appointment of David Elder is going to see another person serve this parliament with great distinction.

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