Mr SPEAKER (11:27 PM) —It is customary for the Speaker to have the opportunity to conclude these remarks of good wishes at Christmas time. Let me then begin on the note on which the Leader of the House concluded and say that there are occasions when flak is flying and you are very grateful for the support of others. As one who in the last week or so has experienced something of that, I am grateful for the support—as the Leader of the Opposition is—of all those in the chamber, on both sides, who were in touch with my office. I am grateful to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the House for the fact—and I think this ought to be on the public record—that, as a Speaker, I am left entirely to my own resources in terms of decisions that are made, and I am grateful to them for the level of independence that they leave me. I should place on the record that I have never had a conservation with the Prime Minister about my role in the two years that I have had it. I am similarly grateful to the Leader of the Opposition and the Manager of Opposition Business for, in the two years that I have been the Speaker, there has been the opportunity to develop a relationship with them and it takes little more than eye contact now for me to know precisely what they are thinking—and, I suspect, for them to know precisely what I am thinking.

I therefore say to the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the House, the Manager of Opposition Business and the Deputy Prime Minister, thank you for the warm remarks that you have extended to me and to Carolyn, my wife, who happens to be in the gallery this evening and to whom I am, of course, like everyone else, deeply indebted. She and our three children are, as others have observed tonight, the light of my life; I would have no particular purpose in life without them. As many of you are aware, in the last month the family has also been joined by a grandchild, and we are particularly delighted about that.

There are those who sadly think that for us to participate in this form of Christmas greeting is, as the Prime Minister alluded to, in some way hypocritical or facile or insincere. Those of us who are participants in this place know that is not the case. In fact, as many have said, it is inevitable that this is a place of fierce political competition, and Australians who are honest with themselves would not have it any other way. I am not proud of the occasional snide remark or the personal abuse that sometimes occurs but, for the overwhelming majority of the members of this House, the opportunity is here simply for debate rather than personal abuse. I pick up the sentiments partially expressed by the member for Isaacs in her first speech in this House when she called on all of us to spend more time focusing on policy issues and less time focusing on personal issues.

In this, as previous speakers have said, the Olympic year, I thought it quite appropriate to conclude the year with the statement used in the Celebrate Humanity promotional campaign during the Sydney Olympic Games. There are times when, sitting in the chair, I think of these words, as I suspect most of you do too. The words are: `You are my adversary but you are not my enemy, for your resistance gives me strength, your will gives me courage, your spirit enables me, and, though I aim to defeat you, should I succeed, I will not humiliate you. Instead I will honour you, for without you I am a lesser a person.' There are many times in this chamber when I see members on opposing sides honouring each other. I think of an event within the last month when the Prime Minister rose unexpectedly, from my point of view, to pay a sincere tribute to the Leader of the Opposition for 20 years service in this place. The Leader of the Opposition very graciously responded, indicating how much he had appreciated that sentiment. Sadly, it was not a sentiment that got front-page publicity or that most of Australia was aware of.

Those who make it possible for us to be in a parliament which is adversarial and at the same time cooperative—not as cooperative as we may sometimes want, but those who have been here long enough to know that that is in fact the underlying sentiment—have already been named, but I would like to pay a particular tribute, because of my role as Speaker, to the many people who as staff members in this place make it work. I must start with my Deputy Speaker, Mr Gary Nehl, and the second Deputy Speaker, Mr Harry Jenkins, and the members of the Speakers Panel who in fact occupy the chair and who endeavour—and I think most people would agree are successful—to impartially adjudicate on the many debates that occur in this place. I want to thank the Parliamentary Liaison Officer and the government and opposition whips and their staff.

I am more indebted than most to the Clerk of the House—I was going to say `my clerk' because I see him on such a regular basis—Mr Harris, and of course to Bernard, for the way in which they offer professional advice to everyone, for the way in which they ensure that everyone can come to them without fear or favour, and for the way in which their advice is always well founded. I also pay tribute to Laraine and Katrina in the Clerk's Office, to the clerk assistants, to the Table Office, the Chamber Research Office and their staff, to the people in the Sergeant-at-Arms' Office—Judy Middlebrook, Dalma and Barry—and the messengerial and security attendants. Comments have been made about the security attendants and the messengerial attendants, who do so much to make our lives safe, secure and that much more efficient. I would like particularly to pay a tribute to the transport staff. I want to report to the parliament that I did have the opportunity this evening to visit Brian Flanagan, who many of you know, and to pass on the kind regards of the parliament to him. He reciprocated, with a twinkle in his eye, and asked me to mention how pleased he was to hear from all of us and to pass on similar sentiments to the parliamentarians.

I thank the committee staff of the House and the joint committees for another excellent year; the printing staff who work long hours to meet the needs of the House; and members of the keyboard staff. Can I offer special thanks to the Liaison Projects Office of the House of Representatives which, earlier this year, won the 2000 Leadership in Marketing Award for the ACT. The office continues to do an outstanding job of promoting community understanding of and interaction with the work of the House and its committees. Of course, there are those whom we do not see so much of because they are in areas of the buildings that we do not frequently visit—those who are in the cavernous underground parts of this building—and those people who support us through members' entitlements, human resources, finance, information services and publishing.

Everyone in the parliament is aware of the indebtedness that we owe to Chris Paterson and his staff in the Parliamentary Relations Office and particularly to the work that they do in ensuring that visiting delegations into Australia are made to feel welcome and that we have the opportunity to be professionally supported if we find ourselves overseas. I join the Manager of Opposition Business in paying a particular tribute to the Parliamentary Education Office, which is sometimes overlooked largely because of its current base on the Senate side of the building.

I thank the Parliamentary Library staff and the Parliamentary Reporting Staff and the head of that department, John Templeton, the library research and resources staff and the Centenary of Federation group, led by Bernie Harris, which will be so pivotal to the events that will occur in this next year. My thanks go too, of course, to Hansard, and I join with all others in expressing our appreciation for the very professional way in which Hansard go about their task. I thank the broadcasting people and the people in the broadcasting box, who make it possible for Australia to observe what we are about and to see what a transparent democracy is all about, and those in computing support, and the switchboard operators, who are rarely seen.

I also pay tribute to Mike Bolton and his team of managers in Joint House, the supervisors and maintenance staff, the guides, who are often the public face of this place, particularly when we are not present, and the nurses. I join the Deputy Prime Minister in recognising the role of the gardeners and I offer them special congratulations for completing the original design in the ministerial gardens. If you have not taken a look at it, you really ought to, because it is coming up quite magnificently. I thank also Louise Dauth in the Parliament House arts section. I nominate as well Audrey's Florist. One of the privileges of being the Speaker is having Audrey offer fresh flowers each week in the office. That is truly appreciated. I nominate also AUSPIC, Aussies cafe—or Dom's—Jetset Parliamentary Travel, the Health and Recreation Centre, Hyatt and AFS Catering for the way we are cared for, and Lizzie's hairdressing. As you may be aware, Lizzie has been away, and there were many very pleased to see her return. I think she has just returned. Yes, the member for Paterson is nodding. I thank also Marketing Services, the Parliament Shop, the physiotherapist, the Post Office, Qantas and Westpac.

While I am on my feet, I pay a particular tribute to my staff here in Parliament House. Peter Gibson gives me great support as my chief of staff, as you are all well aware. Wendy Willis has been on leave but is shortly to return, and many will be pleased to see Wendy back on the Speaker's staff. Pauline Osmond is well known for the time that she has been around the building. But perhaps the person best known of all is Marie Donnelly, who has served a number of speakers; one member of my staff unkindly observed that Marie has been here since Federation. That is not fair, but it is true to say that everyone in the parliament knows Marie and stands indebted to her. I thank Yvonne Bailey, who has just joined us, as Speaker's assistant, for the role that she too is playing.

To pick up the sentiments also expressed by previous speakers, I recognise that in this role I find myself, particularly while I am in the parliament, unable to give quite the same focus and time to the electorate as I did prior to taking this office. So I stand more indebted than ever to Dennis Gifford, Kerry Kerr and David Little, and Helen, Mignon and Gaynor, who in a part-time capacity also make up my Wakefield office staff.

Before I make a particular comment about the support that I have had from each of you and extend to you my greetings, I conclude by focusing as others have on the fact that much has been made, particularly this week and this day, of the question of reconciliation. It struck me while people were speaking about reconciliation that reconciliation is not as much about agreeing with each other as it is about accepting each other, as we are. Theologians would say that, within the Christian context of Christmas, the Christmas message has very little to do with peace, love and goodwill because they are sentiments that can be shared with people of a range of religious beliefs. The Christian context of Christmas instead has a great deal more to do with the theological view of God being reconciled to man. It struck me that we who have been so expert in talking about reconciliation, who have in fact achieved so much in our own lifetimes in reconciliation in Australia, could well spend the centenary year endeavouring even more enthusiastically to be reconciled to each other—not that we need to agree with each other, but that we need to accept each other as we are.

So having said that, I make a genuine endeavour as the Speaker to be even more closely reconciled to colleagues on both sides of the parliament. I thank you all for your very good wishes. Will you please accept from Carolyn and me our very best wishes for Christmas and the new year.

Question resolved in the affirmative.