Norman Russel: Election of SpeakerText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNorman Russel: Election of Speaker[Sitting date: 20 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:7. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green):Congratulations Mr Speaker-Elect on your successful nomination for Speaker of this House. On behalf of the Green Party caucus I wish you well for your second stint at the beginning of this 51st Parliament. You come to the role with 19 years’ experience as a member of this House a Minister a member of the Opposition and a Government whip. You bring to the House the wisdom of your time both in Parliament and outside Parliament. We wish you the very best in applying that wisdom and experience to this crucial role as the chairperson of this House.As you are aware one of the functions of this House according to the text on this place McGee is to “scrutinise Government decisions and to receive genuine explanations from Ministers about the administration of their portfolios.” One of the ways the House achieves these functions is through question time which you chair. McGee describes the process of holding the Government to account as the “quid pro quo for the authority they consider necessary to carry on governing the country”. McGee goes on to say: “Many of the procedures of the House are designed specifically to enable the House to play its part in the scrutiny and control of the Government. These include questions addressed to Ministers general and urgent debates and select committees of members investigating matters of governmental responsibility and regulations made by the Government under powers delegated by Parliament. Everything the House does potentially gives it the opportunity to probe and criticise the actions of the Government.”It would seem to me that in order for the Opposition to effectively do its duty—to effectively probe scrutinise and criticise the actions of the Government which is our job—we need actual answers to questions in question time the questions we pose to Ministers about their portfolios. To achieve that the Green Party asks that you reconsider one of your rulings. The previous Speaker ruled that questions should be answered—straight questions deserve straight answers is what Dr Lockwood Smith said. You reinterpreted that ruling to say that they had only to be addressed which is of course what the Standing Orders say and I appreciate that the Standing Orders do say that. I would ask you to reconsider that ruling. I think that the ruling by Dr Smith that straight questions deserve straight answers made a big difference to this House.As you are aware there are very serious concerns currently about the Government’s application of the Official Information Act including possibly illegal delaying activities which are being investigated by the Chief Ombudsman Beverley Wakem. The Official Information Act and question time are two of the key mechanisms available to the Opposition members of Parliament to seek explanations from Ministers and to hold them to account for the decisions that they make. I would argue that there is a real risk—a chilling risk—to our democracy if during question time Ministers are not required to answer straight questions.This is a time of great pomp and ceremony today and tomorrow and of course Lockwood Smith was a great lover of pomp and ceremony and introduced some elements of pomp and ceremony into this place. But Dr Smith was not only a great lover of pomp and ceremony; he was also a believer in parliamentary accountability the idea that the Government of the day should be accountable to Parliament for its actions. That is what question time is all about. I think it is time we went back to his ruling that straight questions deserve straight answers. It made question time a better place; it made our Parliament a better place.The pomp that Dr Smith introduced into Parliament remains but some of the content has faded because question time is weaker. Mr Speaker-Elect I request that you revert to Dr Smith’s ruling. It was a good ruling. The role of the Speaker in our democracy is a sacred one. Once it was to protect Parliament against a monarch; these days it is more to protect Parliament and our democratic institutions against the Government of the day. I would ask that you enforce those rulings by Dr Smith.