Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Clerk, I move:

That the honourable member for Mackellar do take the chair of this House as Speaker.

The member for Mackellar's long years of meritorious service in this House and in another place well and truly equip her to be an excellent Speaker of this parliament. As all of us who have known the honourable member well for a long time understand, she is a formidable character, and I can think of no-one more likely to deal with all of the other formidable characters in this place without fear or favour. Bronwyn can do what is necessary to maintain control of what is sometimes an unruly House.

This chamber should always be a place of spirited debate. But it should never be a place where motives are impugned or characters assassinated. When any of us are tempted to be low, mean or petty, the member for Mackellar is well equipped to recall us to our duty. This parliament will be a different one and a better one, I hope. The member for Mackellar loves this parliament. She reveres its traditions, and she has the capacity to help all of us to be at our best. I commend her nomination to the House.

The Clerk: Is the motion seconded?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to 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?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do.

The Clerk: Is there any further proposal?

Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Clerk, I move:

That the honourable member for McEwen do take the chair of this House as Speaker.

The opposition is not unmindful of the tradition of governments promoting their own for this position, but there is also a strong tradition of oppositions putting forward and supporting their own. There is occasionally a lament that the modern Labor Party no longer has any tradesmen as members of parliament, but the member for McEwen's background with RACV roadside assistance makes him someone about whom this cannot be said—as well as making him a very useful person to know.

He was elected to the Victorian parliament in 2002 as the first Labor MP to represent the Central Highlands Province electorate in the Legislative Council. When he came to this parliament in 2010 he brought with him considerable understanding of regional Victoria. He was a founding member of Victoria's first Community Emergency Response Team and passionately devoted himself to assist the many families in his electorate who were devastated by the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009. During the last parliament he served on the Speaker's panel, he served as Deputy Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia and he served on the Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network.

This election for Speaker takes place against a somewhat unfortunate background. After the 2010 election the opposition were aggrieved that they had not won, and, in particular, that the Independents had not supported them. They hoped to make the hung parliament unworkable and to force an early election. They refused, for example, to provide any members for the Speaker's panel and engaged in a parliamentary strategy of havoc, chaos and mayhem. In doing so, they caused some damage to the standing of this parliament. Given that there appeared to be no penalty for this conduct there is some grievance on this side of the House and, of course, the temptation to retaliate in kind. We are, however, aware of the desire of the Australian people that parliamentary standards be improved and that the conduct of members of parliament improve. This is where the role of Speaker is important.

No-one doubts that the member for Mackellar is experienced, but we have experience of her. I think members will understand what I am saying when I say that she is very black and white: there are certainly no shades of grey with her. I understand that it is her intention to continue to attend meetings of her party room. On this side of the House, we are looking for a Speaker who can be even handed, reasonable, capable of seeing the other person's point of view and capable of seeing the other side of the argument. In this respect I commend to the House someone like former Speaker Jenkins, the member for Scullin, 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 the right qualities. He is liked by both sides of the House and is capable of seeing the other person's point of view. Given that he has those qualities I urge the House to support his nomination.

The Clerk: Is the motion seconded?

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the nomination. The member for Wills commented about the member for McEwen and the member for Mackellar. This is my third parliament and I have not seen the member for Mackellar in the chair. The member for Wills said that, unfortunately, because of the direction of the then Leader of the Opposition no member of the opposition sat on the Speaker's panel apart from the member for Maranoa, who is a good and honourable man, who sat in the position as Deputy Speaker and did his job admirably. So I did not see the member for Mackellar in the chair in order for me to know how fair she could be. Obviously, a Speaker must be in love with democracy. They cannot use their role as a mechanism to wield power and promote or protect privilege. That is not what this chamber is for. The 150 people elected to this chamber have a solemn duty to their electorates, and that is about democracy. I have never seen the member for Mackellar sitting in the chair and being fair and impartial.

I think the Prime Minister said that the role should restore dignity. I take offence at that comment because the 43rd Parliament had dignity.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just because you did not act in a dignified way does not mean that the parliament did not have dignity. When we unpack democracy we could look at what the nominated members have done. Let us have a look at whether the member for Mackellar followed that great Liberal tradition of looking at the policy and crossing the floor, and we will see whether she is prepared to be bipartisan. I have been in only two parliaments and I have seen only two MPs in this chamber cross the floor on a topic. I think the member for McMillan did it over asylum seekers, and he was rewarded by being totally overlooked. We had the member for Wentworth cross the floor over the ETS, and he was rewarded by being placed on the cover of the Real Solutions brochure. In the other place I saw Senator Sue Boyce cross the floor the day after the member for Warringah was made leader, and she was rewarded by being overlooked and then by being booted out of parliament. I know the member for New England has crossed the floor, and I look forward to seeing how he goes when it comes to voting on GrainCorp. I am sure he will talk tough and walk soft.

Let us look at how the member for Mackellar and the member for McEwen have treated democracy. The best way to analyse it is by looking at how they have voted on legislation that brings votes to the Australian people. Let us look at the 2010 election review, when we tried to get 1.5 million people back onto the electoral roll, and the dissenting report from the member for Mackellar.

I am sorry to say, Member for McEwen, that maybe we should support the member for Mackellar for the sake of the sisterhood rather than you. You have a Y chromosome and she does not. There is a saying that the head slave whips the hardest. Let us have a look at how the member for Mackellar has treated the sisterhood when given the opportunity. When she stood out the front of this place in front of a poster saying, 'Ditch the witch,' or a poster saying, 'Juliar … Bob Brown's bitch,' what did she do? Did she apologise for that? No, she never apologised for that. She actually said that the people who had those signs were good, decent Australians.

Honourable members interjecting—

These are the facts. We are about to make a decision about democracy in this place. I think very seriously about these decisions. Obviously, it is an important role and it is good to have a bit of humour. In the last six years I have seen the member for Mackellar make two good jokes. She made a joke about the size of Julia Gillard's nose. Then she made a joke about the clothes that Julia Gillard wore. The jokes were quite funny, but the humour of someone in the chair needs to have a touch of self-deprecation. I think the member for Mackellar has deprecation down pat. The reality is that we should choose the member for McEwen for the sake of democracy in this chamber.

The Clerk : Does the member for McEwen accept the nomination?

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do.

The Clerk : Is there any further proposal? The time for proposals has expired. In accordance with standing order 11, the bells will be rung and a ballot taken.

The bells having been rung and a ballot having been taken—

The Clerk: The result of the ballot is: Mrs BK Bishop, 93 votes; Mr Mitchell, 56 votes. Mrs BK Bishop is declared elected.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to express my grateful thanks for the high honour that has been bestowed on me by the House.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, on behalf of, I trust, the whole House, and certainly on behalf of the government, I congratulate you on the high office to which you have been elected. Yes, over the years, you have been a very tough politician. But as well as being a very tough politician you are, as was said earlier in this chamber, someone who understands the rhythms of this House, who understands the importance of this chamber in our democracy and who genuinely wants the best for our democracy. You understand that, if this parliament is at its best, our country will be closer to its best. You understand that all of us are called to be better, and you are determined to ensure that this parliament is a better parliament than the one it replaces. I do not attribute blame, unlike perhaps some, for the difficulties and the frustrations of the last parliament. All of us can do better in this parliament than we did in the last parliament. I am determined to do that, I trust that all in this House are determined to do that, and I know that you, Madam Speaker, will hold us to the high standards you have always set in your own life.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Speaker Bishop, I congratulate you and I wish you well in terms of your tasks for the 44th Parliament. All of us know that you have a fondness—indeed, a forensic passion—for the standing orders. You bring to this House decades of experience. With your capacities, there is no doubt that, within another government, you would have been a very good minister. I trust you to be independent, as you have stated, and I believe that, through carrying out your functions in an independent manner, you will honour the best traditions of the Westminster system. Again, on behalf of the opposition, please accept our congratulations.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I congratulate you on your election to this office. You have held most positions in this parliament—in the other chamber and here. As a member of the Senate and a member of the House of Representatives you have been a minister and a shadow minister. You have been active in the parliamentary committee system. You have certainly played a major role in the parliament over quite a long period of time. You had five years on the House Standing Committee on Procedure, which would have been an excellent opportunity for you to get the experience you need to grasp how the standing orders work and, no doubt, would have given you some ideas also about how you might like this parliament to work better in the future.

In many ways, in spite of all the things that you have done as a parliamentarian—and you have been well recognised and acknowledged around the country for those achievements—I think you have, in some ways, always been destined to be Speaker; it has certainly been one of your loves. I think it would be a very, very brave member of the parliament who would come to the dispatch box with the House of Representatives Practice under their arm and challenge your rulings; you know every page and, seemingly, every paragraph. I am sure that you will exercise your experience to the benefit of the House.

The last parliament was a challenging time for the Speaker. The fact that there were three Speakers obviously did not help. It was a parliament that I think many of us would like to put behind us. The public expect our parliament to behave better in the future. They want a parliament that is orderly and businesslike. I believe that you have the skills, talent and ability to lead the parliament to aspire to achieve reform and to make sure that the business of the parliament is conducted in an orderly and businesslike manner in the future. It is, of course, up to us as members of parliament to support you in that role so that we can have a parliament that the people of Australia will respect for the 44th class. Congratulations on your election and my very best wishes to you in that role.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Speaker Bishop, I rise to add my congratulations on your elevation to the role of Speaker. I know it is a position that you have worked very hard for. I ask one thing of you, and that is that I inherit your copy of the House of Representatives Practice from the last parliament. I have not seen a more dog-eared one, and I think some of the underlinings in it might be instructive! I add my congratulations and I wish you well. I know that Speaker Burke and Speaker Jenkins, and Speaker Slipper before them, had their work cut out for them in the last parliament. I anticipate that you will not have quite the challenges that those three Speakers had, but I hope that, in particular, you will be able to follow the example of Speaker Burke and Speaker Jenkins to deliver unbiased and thoughtful decisions that benefit the dignity of the House.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Greens I extend our congratulations to you. As has been said, in this parliament you may have fewer moments than our previous Speakers where your heart is in your mouth as you wait to see which way the crossbenchers are going to vote on matters of confidence and the like. But I can report from this corner of the chamber that we are still here; reports of the death of the crossbench were remarkably premature! There are five of us in this parliament, compared with the six that were returned at the last parliament. So my one request of you, Madam Speaker, is that, when you look to the right and to the left for people seeking the call, you also look down the middle.

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

) ( ): Madam Speaker, it is a great pleasure to congratulate you on your election. This is the first time in 21 years that I have had cause to put your name into a ballot. I am very glad that you won it and that you won it so overwhelmingly.

I very much look forward to working with you to make this parliament a better place than the 43rd parliament, although it is coming off a very low base. Have no doubt that I, as Leader of the House, will do my utmost to ensure that members of the government follow the rules, listen to your rulings, understand the standing orders and make the place run as smoothly and as reasonably as is possible in a robust democracy such as ours. Again, congratulations to you.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Speaker, congratulations on the role that you have achieved today. This day in parliament, probably more than any other, functions like a first day back at school. People have remarked today about this being reminiscent of the Harry Potter novel in which they all returned to Hogwarts and found that Dumbledore was gone and Dolores Umbridge was in charge of the school.

We have a situation where, for everything that has been said by those opposite about the commitment to the new parliament, a number of very specific commitments to the new parliament were made. Page 167 of House of Representatives Practice refers to the fact that the Speaker is ordinarily nominated by a private member and not by the executive, and certainly not by the Prime Minister. In terms of providing the sort of nonpartisan role the Speaker provides, the opposition does look forward to the commitments made before the election being kept, including that there will be an independent Speaker who will not attend party-room meetings.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank honourable members for their comments. In taking this office and being elected to this office, I would say that I consider the office to be one of enormous privilege. When the Prime Minister nominated me, he said that I care passionately for this place. I do. I care passionately for its traditions. I care passionately for what it represents, in looking after the welfare of the people of Australia. So when we talk about the need for more decorum what I hope from that is that the people of Australia may see us as upholding their interests in a better way.

I notice the comments made earlier when an alterative candidate for Speaker was nominated. I think perhaps the lesson there is that sometimes you can talk yourself more into trouble than you can out of trouble. But that is not to reflect on the way in which I will be in the chair—I mean to be impartial. The comments I have made about attending party meetings are simply to do with the fact that I am a Liberal. But we do not deal with tactics, and I would not be part of that. In this chair I will act impartially. That is a responsibility that goes back to 1377.

I am delighted to say that I did not have to struggle too much today, because the welfare of speakers has improved markedly over that period. It is part of the tradition that we do indeed show that in that struggle there were previous speakers who, in acting as the interlocutor between the monarch and the parliament, perhaps either ended up in the Tower of London or lost their heads.

Can I say also that when we make analogies to the parliament, I regard this as a strong and robust place of debate? It is not a classroom and it is not a polite debating society. It is a place where we fight for ideas, and the width of that table is symbolic in that we do not use weapons such as swords and we do not use fisticuffs. But we do use words. Sometimes we use them harshly, and we have standing orders that apply to that. As we go forward in this parliament, I do hope that we will raise our stakes in the eyes of the people for the peace, order and good government of the people of Australia.

Just for the record, the mode of address I would expect to receive is Madam Speaker. I also intend perhaps to revive a couple of the other niceties we have used from time to time, but we will see how that goes.

Can I end by simply saying that I am delighted to have my family present in the gallery today? I also am very honoured to have had friends come today. It is for me, I think, the capping of my career. It is true that I am the first woman from the conservative side of politics to have held this role. We have had two from the Labor side, and I pay respect to Anna Burke for the job she did.

In relation to words said about the sisterhood, I say that I have never, ever put myself forward other than to say, 'I am the best person for the job.' I hope that is the reason that 93 people voted for me today.

I will conclude by saying that there will be times when there will be turbulence and there will be times when we can feel that the heat and the anger of the place rises. It will be my job to try to keep order whilst the place remains one for robust discussion of ideas and competing ideas.

I thank the House for the vote I have received. I am here to serve in the traditions of the parliament.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I have ascertained that it will be Her Excellency the Governor-General's pleasure to receive you in the Members Hall immediately after the resumption of sittings at 2.30 pm.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prior to my presentation to Her Excellency the Governor-General this afternoon the bells will ring for five minutes so that honourable members may attend in the chamber and accompany me to the Members Hall, where they may, if they wish to, be introduced to Her Excellency.

Proceedings suspended from 12 : 14 to 14:30

The Speaker and honourable members proceeded to the Members Hall and having returned—

I have to report that, accompanied by honourable members, I proceeded to the Members Hall and presented myself to Her Excellency the Governor-General as the choice of the House as its Speaker and that Her Excellency was kind enough to congratulate me.