Speaker's Adviser

Sounds interesting, but what actually is it?

2 min read

Speaker's Adviser - Parliament of Victoria

September 2018 – December 2023

For most people who give a cursory glance to the evening news as the days political coverage begins, the Speaker is the frustrated person sitting at the head of the parliament's chamber during Question Time, trying to maintain order as Members of Parliament yell across the chamber, engaging in some sort of verbal sparring match.

What most people will never see is that the role of the Speaker actually carries a wide range of administrative duties outside of the chamber. Many of these duties are similar to those of a government minister. In Victoria, the Speaker is responsible for the Department of the Legislative Assembly and jointly responsible with the President (like the Speaker, but in the Upper House) for the Department of Parliamentary Services and the employment of over 800 electorate officers. The Speaker additionally has a range of statutory responsibilities (such as swearing-in various office holders across the Victorian public sector).

As the Speaker's Adviser, I led the operations of the Speaker’s Office at the Victorian Parliament through the provision of advice and executive support covering the vast range of the Speaker’s parliamentary and statutory duties. This role was incredibly wide ranging, and particularly during the COVID shutdowns required me to grow and develop in areas not originally envisaged for this role.

Key Responsibilities

  • Managing the Speaker’s office on a day-today basis. This would include processing a high volume of correspondence, briefs, public enquires, invitations and diary appointments.

  • Providing strategic advice to the Speaker regarding the Speaker’s parliamentary and statutory responsibilities. This could range on deciding on controversies and complex questions arising out of the course of debate in the chamber, requiring the Speaker to adjudicate and issue rulings. This could also extend to advising on

  • Built strong relationships and influence with a diverse range of stakeholders including Members of Parliament, Ministers, political advisers, Department Heads and senior management.

  • Research and preparation of reports on issues/topics of interest at the request of the Speaker.

  • Providing secretariat support to the Parliament’s Audit Committee.

  • Assisting the Speaker with decision making on complex and highly sensitive matters.

  • Coordinating responses to media inquiries.

Achievements

  • I was tasked with overseeing the development of an Australian-first policy for handling of workplace complaints covering Members of Parliament. This involved convening a cross party working group of MPs and working with legal experts to craft a policy proposal to submit to government. At its core, this proposal sought to introduce a way for people working with MPs to safely complain about workplace misconduct by MPs, and have that complaint dealt with by an independent party (previously such matters would be dealt with in opaque ways and ultimately would be handled by other MPs) This proposal was subsequently adopted the Victorian Government and enacted into legislation as the Parliamentary Workplace Standards and Integrity Act 2024.

  • Through my time in this role, one of my side projects was to review the various legislation governing the Victorian Parliament's functions, including the Parliamentary Precincts Act 2001, the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003 and the Parliamentary Administration Act 2005. This resulted in a number of proposals for legislative reform, largely to update and modernise these laws to streamline Parliament's processes. The proposals had received in-principal support by the Victorian Government.

  • I helped to implement various changes to governance arrangements, including implementing different reporting mechanisms to the Speaker and President, and changes to the composition and function of the Parliament's Audit Committee.