Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I am using this opportunity to ask you a question in your administration capacity in this place. House of Representatives Practice, at page 146, states:

Members are entitled to expect that, even though politically affiliated, the Speaker will carry out his or her functions impartially.

Given the Prime Minister pointed out in question time your political comments on Q&A last night, was it appropriate for the Speaker to use her role in this place to go into the media to comment on issues which may come before the chair in the future?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The questions that you are entitled under the standing orders to ask me as Speaker are questions relating to the administration. I doubt that that is such a question; however, I will refer you to a different section of the Practice, where it states quite plainly that, in this system of 'Ausminster' which we have here in Australia, the Speaker remains politically affiliated and is impartial in the chair. Being impartial in the chair does not mean giving in to the noisiest lot. Any day that you look at this chamber, it is not hard to work out where the noise comes from. Indeed, when I was in opposition, I was as noisy as you were and I got thrown out very often too. The job of opposition is to make life difficult for the government—we all know that. The job of the government is to explain its policies. I am disappointed that, as a former Speaker, you asked the question in the terms that you did.