Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, congratulations. I've known you since we met in Young Labor in our early 20s in the early 1990s, and it's a great honour for you to now be in this role.

I want to thank the member for Fisher. People often don't know that, in the lead-up to parliament sitting before we've elected a Speaker, the previous Speaker continues to hold the office. A lot of arrangements and a lot of work has gone into today being organised. As the presiding officer, the member for Fisher has been responsible for that, and on behalf of the government I want to express thanks for the way that that was done.

I also want to thank the former member for Casey, who put you on the Speaker's panel. It was possibly a difficult thing to put you on the Speaker's panel, and I should confess to the parliament that that was my fault. There are photographs circulating on social media of you turning up to the chamber with toy Muppet dolls. You were thrown out of parliament for that, and it was entirely my idea that you do that. You were chosen on the basis that, at that point, you were the only member of the caucus who had not yet been thrown out. So, while it was disorder, it was disorder on the basis that you, to that point, for an opposition member, had been too respectful of the system.

I want to wish you well. You've done a great job on the Speaker's panel, but, importantly, this job doesn't end when the parliament adjourns. A lot will be required to be done—particularly with respect to the Set the standard report from Kate Jenkins—in terms of here as a workplace, where the role of the presiding officers is going to be critical. One of your great skills, which has caused you to be supported by so many members here today, is that you are someone who brings people together. You are someone who reaches out to people. When people have had their toughest days, it's often a phone call from you that comes. I think that augurs well for the role—not simply in presiding over the debate but in managing this building as a workplace. I wish you well.

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