Brownlee GerrySPEAKER-ELECT: Well what a surprise! Can I offer my thanks to the members of the House who have shown this confidence in me today and to affirm with the House that I see the role very much as protection of members' rights to speak freely in this House and to go about their business across the country unimpeded.I want to acknowledge the seven Speakers that I've served under in my time in the Parliament. Many of them at some point or another have come under some opprobrium from some parts of the House—quite often from me. I think that that is unfortunately the lot of a Speaker but I'll do my best to be fair and even across the House.I want to acknowledge my immediate predecessor the Rt Hon Adrian Rurawhe. You sir brought a calm and a dignity to this House at a time that it was needed and I know that many members who are here today very much appreciate that. I'm grateful that in our discussions leading to today you've offered your good counsel any time I should need it and there's no doubt there will be those times.Look I just want to give some indication of how I might work. Firstly can I say that our Standing Orders really are just a guide for how this House works. They're important and they give us a framework but they're not absolute. When I first came to this House I sat through the Address in Reply debate where the party leaders were all speaking one after the other after the two very good maiden speeches from the movers and seconders. One of those speakers as it happens is here today and will probably be speaking tomorrow I suspect. But that was to say the least a ferocious debate for someone sitting for the first time in Parliament down the back of the House. After it was over the Rt Hon Doug Kidd who was a very good Speaker said to me So what did you think of that?" I said "Well Doug I don't know how I would ever manage to compete and participate in that environment." His advice was simply osmosis: be here learn from the environment don't get too hung up on the rules recognise that it is a free flow of debate and participate in it reasonably whenever you can but above all else learn—advice offered today to some new members from the Prime Minister in fact. So I would offer that advice to all new members who are in the House today.I just want to congratulate those new members as well as returning members but the new members but also recognise from the Chair the huge amount of work that's gone in by the volunteers that will have helped you and supported you in getting to this place. That is a big part of our participatory democracy and we can't forget about it when we sit in this House.Finally I want to acknowledge my family who are here today. Without their forbearance just like the rest of you I would not be here and not able to do this job.I also want to take the unusual step of acknowledging my good friend Roger Bridge without whose counsel and advice over many years I would also not be in this position.So can I with those remarks thank the House for their confidence and express the wish that we all might get on a little bit better than I got on with some of the Speakers who have gone before me. I suppose in that regard I should also acknowledge my biggest challenge will probably be keeping myself in order."