Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm incredibly proud to move:

That Ms Claydon be elected Deputy Speaker of this House.

Sharon Claydon, the member for Newcastle, is everything anyone could ask for in a parliamentarian. She's also everything anyone could ask for in a colleague and in a friend. At a time when calls for doing politics differently rebound across our country and when restoring the public's trust in democracy and government feels like an urgent first-order priority, the member for Newcastle represents the standard that we should all aspire to. She embodies the qualities that are required not just to preside over but to enhance proceedings in this chamber, and she has the experience, commitment and work ethic to play an important role in ensuring that we bring in the reforms necessary to address the cultural problems that we know exist across this institution.

Sharon Claydon was first elected to represent the people of Newcastle in 2013. Anyone who knows her knows that she has a deep and abiding love for and commitment to service of her community. Importantly, she approaches this service with a lived understanding of the history of her community, a sophisticated approach to the challenges that it faces and an infectious optimism for its future. Perhaps some of this comes from her previous profession as an anthropologist, which is not a profession that springs immediately to mind when you think of a federal parliamentarian but is just one of the things that set Sharon apart from the crowd. I know that much of it comes from being prepared to do the hard work of listening to the voices of people from across the political, social, economic and cultural spectrum, from her commitment to always seek a solution that promotes equality and fairness, from her valuing of the experts and the people with lived experience and from being inevitably the person who puts up her hand to deliver the solution, not just be part of talking about it.

The member for Newcastle has also been a servant of this parliament since the day she was elected. She joined the Speaker's panel in March 2015—I am told that that was the first opportunity for her to do so—and, everyone in this place will agree with me, she has been a respected occupant of the Speaker's chair as part of that panel ever since. I will admit that I was quite surprised to find out today that she doesn't have a completely unblemished record of behaviour in the chamber. Apparently, she was 94(a)'d by Speaker Bronwyn Bishop.

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