Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

Members, can I say what an honour and humbling experience it is to have been elected again as your Speaker—elected for the third time unopposed—and to be nominated today by the member for Robertson, with that nomination seconded by the member for Calwell. I thank you both for your very kind words during your nomination speeches.

I thank the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and everyone who has spoken for their very kind and humbling words. To the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, thank you for the history and for everything you said. I'm sure you'll get the call at some point during this parliament! We'll ponder that!

To the 27 new members, I know this is such a special day for all of you. As I said when we met last week, it is a rare and special honour to be a member of this House of Representatives. You take the number of members who've served in the House of Representatives since Federation to 1,203. That's something we all should reflect on every day that we're here. It really is a rare and special honour.

A number of the speeches—the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition—pointed out that this is a debating chamber, and it is. It's the arena where the battle of ideas and ideals take place. It's right that it should be vigorous and passionate and robust. In fact, there has just been a hard-fought election where members from different political parties have expressed different views on the best way forward for Australia, and they've been elected, so it would be strange if there was unanimous agreement on every single issue after an election. Indeed, it wouldn't be representative democracy at its best. But, of course, it is important that the arguments—vigorous, passionate and robust as they are—are carried out in a dignified way. It's important that there's a balance in all of that. I've always sought as Speaker to try to get the balance right and to be as fair and predictable as I can be. Obviously, question time is very much the focal point of the day—that 70 minutes where that contest is at its most intense. I do think that there are aspects of question time that we can all improve on, but today is not the day to talk about those matters.

Once again, I thank you for the incredible honour of being your Speaker and I look forward very much to presiding over this House in the days, weeks and years that follow in the 46th Parliament. Thank you so much.

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