Mr ANDERSON (Deputy Prime Minister) (11:31 AM) —Mr Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to join the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in congratulating you on your return to that high office. I was reflecting a moment ago on what a great country it is that, just a few days ago, you and I were in your home area in Renmark enjoying the friendship of, dare I say it, constituents of yours who seemed to be glad that this side of the House was to be returned and would be in a position to put you back in that place. How fortunate we are in this country—you with your office, me with mine—to be able to move around freely as we do amongst our constituents in an atmosphere of goodwill and of security.

I certainly congratulate the Prime Minister on his return to his office and again record my appreciation of his leadership through what was for all of us a difficult year last year. I look forward to continuing to work with him, the Treasurer and the rest of the team. I congratulate the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition on attaining their positions. I was talking to the deputy this morning. She will experience some of those things that are common to all deputies of being a clearing house for some of the problems that will come across the desk. I personally wish her well with it.

Mr Speaker, in relation to our role as members of the House and the way we are perceived by the broader community, as has been touched on, I am often struck by the way people in the community say, including at times when you are on talkback radio and so forth, `We do not like the standards that sometimes we see parliamentarians apply in the House of Representatives.' My response is always to say—and I am echoing a point that the Prime Minister made—that no Australian should be squeamish about a full-blooded debate. It would be a sad thing indeed if in this place there were an inadequate exploration of issues, if there were not strongly held positions and if those positions were not from time to time expressed with great passion. Australia would be the poorer for that. Indeed at times perhaps we would do well to see a wider diversity of views more strongly expressed. I do think that it is part of the Australian way of life that, having expressed your views, you ensure that personal animosity is not allowed then to taint relationships, and I think people expect us to apply that rule in this place.

From that, I just make the observation that you can talk about standing orders, agreements and a whole range of frameworks for the way that we might behave, but in the end it is up to each of us to reflect upon how we interact in this place, how we present our ideas, how we take them forward and how we argue the case without becoming personal and without seeking to abuse others. I think that is what is expected of us. In that sense I was reflecting this morning that we are all privileged—all of us—to have been sworn in in here this morning. There was a very interesting article in today's Australian about Pat Farmer. It reflected, amongst other things, on the reality that I was not aware of that fewer than 1,000 people since Federation have been sworn in as members of this House. I was unaware of that, but it is quite remarkable when you stop to think about it. We are privileged. It is a great honour to serve the Australian people. In the spirit of those remarks that have been made about our behaviour, they do expect us to take forward different perspectives with vigour and passion but to do so in a way that reflects the fact that each one of us has been duly elected by people who want their point of view presented and respected. Mr Speaker, I congratulate you.