The Liberal Party faithful of the region gave speaker of the House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop a “rock-star” reception when she appeared in Young on Tuesday night.
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Mrs Bishop was in Young as the key-note speaker for a $50-a-head Liberal Party function held at the Young Services Club.
She said she was keen to discuss with members of the community her role as speaker and Australia’s unique parliamentary system.
She’s garnered a reputation as a “formidable” speaker of the house, fast approaching the record for the most MPs sin-binned - 98 per cent of them from the opposition.
“I don’t think you’ll find that I’ve ejected anyone who shouldn’t have gone. And in fact, I’ve got to be honest, there are about 10 of them [who are the culprits],” she told The Young Witness.
“Being impartial doesn’t mean you give in to the noisiest lot, being impartial means if you have a ruling you have to make, I’ll listen to both sides of the argument and then I’ll make the decision.”
Mrs Bishop said she felt privileged to hold the speaker’s role.
“Every day is a challenge, so there's never a spare minute in the day,” she said.
“Question time, it’s not a polite debating society, it’s not a classroom, it’s a battlefield.”
As one of the only women in a senior position in the Abbott government, Mrs Bishop said she would like to see more women in parliament.
“I was the first woman ever to be elected to the senate for NSW, so that took 86 years but the good thing was that other women came after me,” she said.
“When I went to the lower house I was the first woman from conservative side of politics to be elected from NSW to the house and also become a minister, but then others have followed... so yes I would like to see other women following but always on merit, no quotas, no affirmative action.”
Praising the efforts of her parliamentary colleague, federal member for Hume Angus Taylor, Mrs Bishop said she thought it was important for the country’s leaders to get out to regional areas.
“Laws are being made for the entire country and it’s very important I think for a working democracy to have people meet the people who are senior in the country, to have an opportunity to do that and to have the opportunity for members to understand what people have got to say and say [it] to them face to face,” she said.
Mr Taylor said the speaker received a “rock-star” welcome from the close to 200 people who attended.
“She has an extraordinary following and that was very clear, she had some very important things to say... she highlighted just how unique and precious our parliamentary system is in Australia,” he said.
“She is formidable, it’s a tough job... it’s (parliament) a ferocious battle of ideas, and it should be.”
