Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I join with the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the House in saying that you'd never win a vote for this decision in this House. The Leader of the House just offered a pathway for a complete unity ticket, which we don't find very often. None of us know every past Speaker in terms of how they chaired in every way for the 120 years of this parliament. So working out best and fairest awards is not an easy thing to do, but there's a simple fact: there's only been one other Speaker in the history of this parliament who has been elected three times and those elections have never been contested. There's only one other Speaker in the history of this parliament who's been nominated and seconded by both sides of the chamber. I don't think any words speak as loudly as the evidence, and the evidence for best and fairest is strong. The most important thing that I think this House always needs is a Speaker who presides over debate but doesn't become the focus of the debate, who allows the parliament to deal with the issues before us. That has been the case the whole way through.

We wish you well. We'll have more to say later but, if you ever want a parliamentary endorsement for leaving, it's not going to happen.

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