Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Member for Banks, the Clerk will not entertain a point of order during these speeches and you should not place him in that position, as you well know.

As we know in this parliament, the Westminster tradition dictates in this country that a member of the government is nominated for, and usually elected as, Speaker. The member for Lyons has served in this parliament since 1993. He was elected in the same election as I was elected in 1993 and he has been re-elected on many occasions since that time. He has been a member of the Speaker's panel of this place since 1996. For 15 years he has been a member of the Speaker's panel of this place and, of course, in the Tasmanian state parliament he was the Chairman of Committees and Deputy Speaker from 1980 to 1981, and as a former member, of course, of the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1979 to 1982.

He has served as chairman and deputy chairman of many parliamentary committees. He is eminently qualified to fulfil the role of Speaker in this parliament. I am almost trepidatious in nominating the member for Lyons knowing how he would like to deal with the opposition if he so took the role of Speaker in this parliament. I know that, if he fulfilled the role, he would do so fairly and reasonably.

I know, most importantly, his No. 1 qualification for Speaker of this parliament is that he comes from the government. Everyone in this parliament knows that the Westminster tradition in this country has been that the government nominates the Speaker and the government fills the role of Speaker. That is as it should be and that is why I nominate the member for Lyons.

The Clerk: Is the motion seconded?

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