Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

Congratulations, Mr Speaker. I join with the Prime Minister, the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition in extending congratulations to you. On behalf of the opposition—the Liberal and National parties—we warmly congratulate you. We acknowledge your experience and your aptitude for the role. You've been in the parliament since 2016, you've served on the Speaker's panel, and I know from my discussions with you that you have a clear understanding of the importance of the role and the significance of the responsibilities that you now hold.

As other speakers have done, I want to acknowledge former Speakers Smith and Wallace, who set a very high bar. While we're acknowledging people, I'd also like to acknowledge the member for McEwen, who served the last parliament as Second Deputy Speaker.

Mr Speaker, this is a very important position that you've been elected to, and I know you are very cognisant of the need to deal with all members of this chamber with fairness and impartiality, following the high standards set by previous Speakers. The opposition looks to you confidently to uphold these values and the responsibility that comes with the position to engage with all members—government, opposition and crossbench—and work with them constructively and professionally. Our commitment to you is that we will work with you professionally and respectfully. Of course, we'll always put our position clearly and make our case strongly, but we will always respect the fundamental importance of the role of the Speaker. Your role is vital to this institution, this embodiment of our democracy: the Parliament of Australia. Ultimately, as the Prime Minister and others have mentioned, community confidence in our system of government depends very heavily on what happens in this place and very much on the way that the Speaker operates.

The opposition warmly congratulate you and wish you the very best as you discharge your heavy responsibilities. We pledge to work with you in that objective—as with others in this House—of maintaining community confidence in our system of government.

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