Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That Mr R. G. Mitchell be elected Deputy Speaker of this House

Mr Speaker, I join the Leader of the Opposition, the deputy leader and the Leader of the House in congratulating you on your re-election to the chair of the House of Representatives. As referenced by the member for Watson when he spoke this morning, in a spirit of bipartisanship the opposition quite deliberately supported your election as Speaker. Your unanimous election came about because we valued the role you played as an independent Speaker in the 44th Parliament and wish to see it continue. It is in hope of that same spirit of bipartisanship and for those same reasons that I commend the member for McEwen as Deputy Speaker.

Like you, Mr Speaker, the member for McEwen is someone who has shown the ability and the experience to be even-handed, reasonable and capable of considering the other's point of view and argument. He is in fact the most experienced person in this House at presiding over the House's daily proceedings. This experience began during the 43rd Parliament, when the member for McEwen served on the Speaker's panel. He also served as deputy chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia and as the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network. He is nominated because he genuinely believes in the institution of parliament, which we all serve, and because his passion for better parliamentary standards holds him in good stead for the position of Deputy Speaker, as does his sense of humour. The member for McEwen has been a valuable mentor to new members in this place, helping them to learn and understand proceedings and standing orders and giving generously of his time, encouragement and support to new members joining the Speaker's panel in the 44th Parliament.

I commend the member for McEwen into the House as someone in the mould of former Speaker Jenkins, who I think was adept at presiding over the House through goodwill and by earning the consent of members rather than through the use of the rule book. In this respect, I think that the member for McEwen has been demonstrated in his time presiding in this place to have the right qualities. He is liked by both sides of the House, is respectful of varying points of view and, as he has demonstrated in this place, is diligent in applying the standing orders objectively when the pressure is on.

I hope the House will put aside partisan politics and consider the member for McEwen for this position today. I commend him for this role, not as a criticism or because of any perceived shortcomings of the member for Parkes, whom I congratulate on being nominated. Like many here, I admire the member for Parkes, having been a teller with him for the 44th Parliament, and wish him well. I commend the member for McEwen because, like our current Speaker and unlike, perhaps, others in the past, he would come to this role not as compensation for dashed opportunities but as a willing servant of the parliament, committed to fairness and objective rulings in this, the people's House.

With the House's indulgence, in just one more reference to the Bard, today, I would proffer that the member for McEwen is our everyman, our Falstaff, in the people's House. It is in celebration of that and in recognition of those qualities that I urge the House to support this nomination

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