page_title: Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives
section_title: Official dress
hierarchical_section_title: Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives / Official dress
caption_attribution_description: Sir Littleton Groom, Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives, standing next to the Speaker's throne
context_page_description: The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia. The presiding officer in the upper house is the President of the Senate. The office of Speaker was created by section 35 of the Constitution of Australia. The authors of the Constitution intended that the House of Representatives should as nearly as possible be modelled on the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
  The Speaker is the presiding officer of House of Representatives debates, determining which members may speak. The Speaker is also responsible for maintaining order during debate, and may punish members who break the rules of the House.
  The office of Speaker is currently held by Tony Smith since 10 August 2015. The Deputy Speaker is Llew O'Brien, who was elected Deputy Speaker on 10 February 2020. If the Speaker is absent the Deputy Speaker becomes the Acting Speaker. The Second Deputy Speaker is Rob Mitchell.
context_section_description: Following the Westminster tradition inherited from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, the traditional dress of the Speaker includes components of Court dress such as a black silk lay-type gown (similar to a Queen's Counsel gown), a wing collar and a lace jabot or bands (another variation included a white bow tie with a lace jabot), bar jacket, and a full-bottomed wig. The wig available for use by the speaker was used by Herbert 'Doc' Evatt when he was a High Court Justice (1930–1940) and was donated to the Parliament by Evatt when he was elected to the House in 1951. The wig is currently on loan from the speaker's office to the Museum of Australian Democracy. Another addition used by earlier speakers, though only for the most formal occasions, included court shoes and hose.
  The dress of Speakers has often varied according to the party in power, but is determined on the personal choice of the Speaker. Most non-Labor Speakers have worn some variation of the traditional dress.  All Labor Speakers have eschewed the traditional dress in favour of ordinary business attire as appropriate for a member of parliament, following the example set by their first Speaker, Charles McDonald.
  Billy Snedden (1976–1983) was the last Speaker to wear the full traditional attire of the Speaker, complete with the wig. On the election of the Howard Government in 1996, the new Speaker, Bob Halverson, chose to wear the traditional court dress of the Speaker upon his election in April 1996, but without the wig. Speaker Ian Sinclair opted to wear a gown, albeit of a simpler academic style, during his brief term in 1998, a practice mirrored by his successors, Neil Andrew and David Hawker. Speaker Harry Jenkins resumed Labor practice from 2007 until the election of Peter Slipper in late 2011. Slipper went a step toward restoring the traditional dress by wearing a gown and bar jacket underneath his business attire. Slipper also took to wearing a white long tie or bow tie, in a variation from the lace jabot or bands. For example, he wore a wing collar with white bow tie and bands on the occasion of his first formal procession into parliament. Speaker Anna Burke resumed Labor practice after being elected to succeed Slipper in 2012. Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, the first non-Labor woman to hold the post, continued wearing business attire with no gown after the Abbott Government installed her in 2013. The incumbent speaker, Tony Smith, has likewise opted for business atire.
caption: Sir Littleton Groom (Speaker 1926–1929) standing by the speaker's chair in Old Parliament House, Canberra, in the traditional speaker's garb
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