Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It is a true pleasure for me to second the nomination of my friend the member for Newcastle as our deputy speaker. The member for Newcastle and I were both elected to this place in the 2013 election, an election which produced a parliament which, I must say, looked very different from the chamber before us here today. I don't want to make you feel old, but, in the 12 years since then, 60 per cent of the class of 2013 has already left this place, and those of us who were elected in that year have now been here for twice as long as the median MP, which is to say that the last 12 years have been a tumultuous time in this place—a tumultuous time to serve.

But, through this period, the member for Newcastle has become an MP held in the highest regard across the chamber. She is the kind of parliamentarian that you measure yourself against; the kind of MP that you feel proud to serve in this place with; and the kind of friend that you go to for advice on the most difficult issues, including, on one occasion when we were both serving on the inquiry into social media, trying to work out how to manage Craig Kelly on that committee.

I would say to the new members in this place that you'd do well to follow the example of the member for Newcastle as you begin your time in this place. But, in saying this, I know it's ironic, because new MPs are perhaps the worst placed in this chamber to understand the impact that the member for Newcastle has had on the work of this parliament. I said earlier that this chamber looks very different than it did in 2013, and I should say also that it feels like a very different place to work in than it did back then. There have been days over the past decade when, frankly, I've finished the day as an MP in this building feeling that I need a shower, or have gotten to the end of a sitting week desperate to get back home to my community to feel like a human being again.

The member for Newcastle has played a central role in the processes of change that have helped bring the norms and the values of modern Australia into this place. New members will take much of this for granted, but it wouldn't have happened without the work led by people like the member for Newcastle. We still have work to do in this regard in this chamber, but, if we want to continue the job, there is no-one better to have as our Deputy Speaker than the member for Newcastle. A jillaroo, a camp cook and an anthropologist before coming to this chamber, she's been uniquely suited to doing the hard work necessary to drive cultural change in this place. Since 2013 the member for Newcastle has been in all of the rooms with the hard labour needed to do the work necessary to make sure this place's work is done. Outside of the public eye, she's always put her hand up for the hard job. She's been on the Speaker's panel since 2015 and has been Deputy Speaker since 2022, as well as being a member of the privileges and members' interests committee.

As chair of the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards, she led the inquiry that produced the first cross-party code of conduct for MPs and staff that was endorsed by this House in February 2023. I know that all members of parliament, from across the chamber, who worked with her during this process know the inclusiveness, the judgement and the diligence that the member for Newcastle displayed during this process. It's no small feat that, on an issue that was so vexing for successive parliaments that they had failed to address it for 50 years, a consensus report was delivered through a committee that the member for Newcastle chaired, with 16 recommendations that were endorsed by all parties and Independents in this chamber. She's left a legacy that will improve this place for generations of parliamentarians to come and will improve the ability of this place to deliver for all Australians who elected us to this place.

I want to note that the member for Newcastle has also been a powerful example of how every member can use this institution to deliver real action for people in our community who need it the most. As deputy chair of the Joint Select Committee on Implementation of the National Redress Scheme, her tireless work helped give a voice and deliver a measure of justice to some Australians who deserved it the most. And in everything she's done as an MP she's done it in a way that's strengthened rather than undermined this institution. She understands that this institution does not exist for all of us but we exist as stewards of this institution for those who follow and for the Australian people. In everything she's done in this place she's acted in a way that has left the institutions of our parliament and our democracy in a better condition for everyone who followed and the Australian public.

So, with the greatest respect to the Speaker, and as a forewarning to all new members, the member for Newcastle is not 'Mr Speaker'. Instead, she is the best Deputy Speaker that any of us could imagine, and I'm proud to nominate her for the role.

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