Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to make a statement and would ask each of you to listen carefully to what I have to say. I decided quite some time ago that I would like to end this last term as a member of this House on the backbench, as the Prime Minister can attest. We discussed this shortly after I announced that I would not be re-contesting the next election. I am not resigning as your Speaker today or tomorrow; rather I'm giving all of you notice of my plans for the future. As I said, I've been thinking about this for a long time and I made the decision some time ago.

I have been your Speaker for six years and two months over the 44th, 45th and this 46th parliaments. Being your Speaker is an incredible honour; I love the job. Obviously, what I'm saying now has been a very difficult decision. I note that many of you appreciate just what a busy and responsible job it is and, as you all know, it has been particularly so these last couple of years—keeping this House running, which has been vital. That's as well as all the other responsibilities of the job which, I can assure you, are much more than question time.

As I said, you already know that I won't be contesting the next election. As your Speaker, I get to speak and, let's be frank: as you know I can speak quite a lot! However, as you also know I don't have the opportunity to contribute in the House on behalf of my constituents in the way that you do every sitting day. That's why, in the final months of this parliament, I want to return to you on the floor of the House as the government member for Casey. I want to spend my remaining time contributing in the House and outside the House, working exclusively for the people of Casey. Without their support in electing me I wouldn't be in this place to be Speaker.

To those on the backbench, can I say that you play a critical role in bringing the issues of concern and priority in your electorates directly to this House and to ministers and shadow ministers. I simply want to rejoin you for the final period as a parliamentarian in this great House of Representatives. Accordingly, I plan to finish up as your Speaker just after we return here in November and return to you on the floor of the House. At this stage, I plan to chair the Monday proceedings on 22 November before resigning and enabling you to elect your next Speaker at the beginning of proceedings on Tuesday 23 November.

I will take the time to make some more extensive and reflective remarks, and some thank yous, after question time on the Monday when we return. Again, I don't want today to substitute for that—for obvious reasons. You might want to say some nice things, but I'm still going to be using 94(a) in question time in about 45 minutes.

As you are aware, a new Senate President was elected just last Monday, so it's important for the parliament that I take the next few weeks to work with him on a whole range of matters that we have joint responsibility for here in the building. I also want to give all members early notice of my decision so they can consider the vacancy.

I've taken the time to outline my reasons, which are simple and clear: I want to finish on the backbench as a government backbencher, and I want to speak in this House again and focus entirely on my electorate. It's not because I'm tired of the job. I doubt I would ever tire of it. It's certainly not because I'm tired of pulling ministers or members into line. I think you know I would never tire of that. I relish it. I just want to return to you.

Let me say clearly: if there is anyone within or outside this House that thinks my decision is the result of some disquiet I have with the government, you are completely wrong. That's why I'm pointing this out so directly now. If, at any point in the last six years and 2½ months, I had felt a decision or action of the House was a direct attack on my speakership, I hope you all know me well enough now to know I would have left the chair immediately.

I have at all times sought to operate fairly, consistently and predictably to be a Speaker for all of you. That's meant disciplining anyone I need to, even when it's a close friend, like the Prime Minister, who I've known for 20 years, or the Treasurer, who I've known for even longer, when he used to draft opinion pieces for other people rather than himself. But we are dear friends—the Treasurer and I—and he's known about my plans for an extensive period of time as well. As I've said, I thought about this over a long period of time. Indeed, had it not been for the responsibility I've had to the operation of the House during this COVID time, I would have been making this speech some time ago.

Given my role and my approach to the speakership over the last six and a bit years, I will conduct myself in a way I believe befitting of a former Speaker still in the House. So I have no plans to ask questions of ministers unless they're directly related to my constituents. Secondly, I have no plans to raise points of order or to point out sound and wise rulings unless absolutely necessary. And I have no plans to interject.

I thank you for your support for the time that I'm here—that's all of today and the coming weeks. And, in the chair today and on the Monday when we return, I'll be enforcing the standing orders as I always have—possibly like never before. Thank you.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Per your wishes, today is not the day when the Leader of the Opposition, I, the Leader of the House and the Manager of Opposition Business will sing your praises. That day will come when we come back in November. But I will simply say this: I believe, Mr Speaker, that we have had the privilege to serve in this House at a time when this House has had its finest Speaker, in you. I know that is a view that is shared widely in this place. You are deeply respected. You have been a close friend—and obviously will continue to be—and a trusted confidant for both of us, and I do want to wish you all the very best. I know you haven't arrived at this decision lightly, and I know what has driven your decision to do it, because you love this place. You love what it provides the opportunity for you to do, and you love doing it for the people you love in your electorate, and you want to return to them and to the forms of this House, as you would say, to be able to express that in the best way you possibly can. So we're very grateful. I'm very grateful for your friendship and your constant guidance and counsel, whether from there or elsewhere, and I wish you and all of your family all the very best, my friend.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks very much, Mr Speaker. I rise to wish you well and to say that I respect your decision and understand how much you care about your electorate. Indeed, we first met as members of the health and ageing committee of the House of Representatives a couple of decades ago now. Since then, but particularly since your rise to the Speakership, we have now a friendship based upon, I would hope, mutual respect. Certainly in my case, that is there. I think that the Speaker is an incredibly important role in this parliament.

Mr Speaker, a word that I would use to describe you, which I regard as an honourable word, is 'parliamentarian'. Not everybody who comes to this place is a parliamentarian. You are. You respect the traditions and the history of the Westminster system, you have been an outstanding Speaker, you have been selected in that position twice unanimously and who knows what might have happened had you stayed on in that position in the future. But, I've said, on the record, even prior to your announcement that you weren't running again, that that was my position.

I also think that one of the things that you've understood is that a good speaker assists the government because order is there, but, most importantly, it supports a respect for our political processes, our cherished democracy, which we should not take for granted. Many of the countries in our region, including ones we have important relationships with, are not democracies, and we should not take it for granted. We should always, always cherish it. You have been one of the finest examples of parliamentarians of your generation. I wish you well. I'll have more to say at the appropriate time when we return on the Monday.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I've just some brief remarks, as you've requested. Can I join with the fine words of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in wishing you well and thanking you for your service to this parliament and for the sacrifice that you've made in your service to this parliament.

Mr Speaker, wisely, you've delivered your words not as a ruling to the parliament but merely as a statement, because, although I've only been in this job a short period of time as Leader of the House, I would be otherwise inclined to move a dissent to your ruling. I'm sure there would be a unanimous position across the parliament to send whatever message we could to you to say that you will be sadly missed and that it is certainly the desire of this parliament, in any other circumstance, for you to continue on.

Mr Speaker, I consider you a dear friend. We were flatmates 20 years ago, having come into the parliament in 2001—a long time ago. The way in which you have conducted your affairs over that period of time has been reflected publicly over the course of the last six years but was obvious to all of us from the first day that we met you. It has been, in my experience, the case for this House that we have not had a better Speaker over the course of those two decades, and that is a great tribute to your intellect and skills and the capacity that you've brought to the position.

I think the obvious statement is: it's a tough job. There's no question about that. But the grace that you've demonstrated from that chair is recognised by us all. We'll have more comments to make in relation to your service to this parliament when we come back in a couple of weeks, as was pointed out before. But, if you had to script to the end to what has been a graceful period of your service as Speaker—a class act—you couldn't really script a closing chapter more perfectly than this. The desire for you to step down from that chair and to represent the interests, in a very genuine way, of the people who have elected you—and I know that you're someone who takes that very seriously, it's a solemn honour to be in this place as a member of parliament, as a parliamentarian, as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out—and that you would give the closing chapter to them, I think, says a lot about you and about the class that you've brought to the position of Speaker.

I can't embellish, Mr Speaker, because I know that it will have no influence on you at all in question time, which is almost upon us, or over your ensuing days in that chair. I wish you every success in the next stage of life and we'll make further comments in due course. Thank you.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Link to 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.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Leader of the House and Manager of Opposition Business, for those very generous remarks. As I said, I haven't gone yet—and I'll have a little bit of lunch and come back for question time. I planned this so that we would run into the time for 90-second statements at 1.30 pm. Thank you, one and all. I'll be back for question time and, as I said, I'll be enforcing the rules as I always have. Thank you.

Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being almost 1.30 pm, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43.