The MPs who move and second the nomination of the successful candidate symbolically drag them to the chair after their election, in accordance with a tradition carried over from Westminster.

While the Opposition usually nominates one of its own members for Speaker after a general election, this is understood to be a symbolic act, and party discipline is always followed in any ballot.

Five Speakers have been former government ministers: William Watt, Littleton Groom, Archie Cameron, Ian Sinclair and Bronwyn Bishop; two have been former Parliamentary Secretaries: Stephen Martin and Tony Smith; and one both a former minister and a former Leader of the Opposition: Billy Snedden.

Anna Burke broke with this tradition and ruled that her official form of address is merely "Speaker."

Australian parliaments are notoriously rowdy, and the Speaker frequently exercises the disciplinary powers vested in them under Standing Orders.

[4]) The Speaker, in conjunction with the President of the Senate, also administers Parliament House, Canberra, with the assistance of an administrative staff in the Australian parliamentary departments.

Together with the President, the Speaker also had such accountability obligations to the Parliament in respect of the Department of Parliamentary Services.

During the Joint Sitting of 1974 the Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives Jim Cope was the presiding officer.

They do not take part in debates in the House, do not vote in the House except in the (relatively infrequent) event of a tied vote, and do not speak in public on party-political issues (except at election time in their own constituency).

Peter Slipper was a member of the Liberal Party when elected as Speaker, but resigned a day later.

Slipper's elevation to the speakership occurred due to the hung parliament resulting from the 2010 election, which saw the ALP form a minority government.

[1] A member elected speaker is entitled to the title "The Honourable" while in office, which, with the approval of the King of Australia, may be retained for life.

[citation needed] 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 King'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.

[12] Another addition used by earlier speakers, though only for the most formal occasions, included court shoes and hose.

[13] 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.

Upon his election in late 2011, Peter Slipper went a step toward restoring the traditional dress by wearing a gown and bar jacket over his business attire.

[12] For example, he wore a wing collar with white bow tie and bands on the occasion of his first formal procession into parliament.

[14] Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, the first non-Labor woman to hold the post, opted for business attire with no gown after her election in 2013.

Subsequent Coalition speakers, Tony Smith and Andrew Wallace, likewise opted for business attire.

[17] Until July 2019 (except for a short period between October 2012 and November 2013), standing order 13(c) of the House stated that only a non-government MP may be a second deputy speaker.

The second occasion was on 9 October 2012, when Scott defeated Labor MP and nominee Steve Georganas and became the deputy speaker.

[21] The following day, the House voted to remove standing order 13(c) to allow Georganas (government MP) to be elected as second deputy speaker.