VIDEO: A day in the life of the Speaker of the House

LAURA TINGLE, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT:  People tend to think of brawling politicians rather than pomp and ceremony when it comes to the federal parliament.

Following the ceremonial mace into the House of Representatives is the Speaker, Milton Dick.

The mace is the symbol of his authority because it is his job to curb the brawling and maintain traditions at the seat of our democracy.

MILTON DICK, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE:  Appreciate he wants an answer. So do I. Order! 

LAURA TINGLE:  The Speaker also oversees a workforce of thousands who keep one of Australia’s most visited buildings functioning smoothly. 

That includes carpenters who are crafting replica maces for an educational project. 

MILTON DICK:  Hello Laura. 

LAURA TINGLE:  Mr Speaker, how are you going. 

MILTON DICK:  Welcome to the workshop or the fabrics as we call it.

LAURA TINGLE:  Well, I don't usually see you down here. In fact, I usually don't get down here. Most people don't. It is an interesting part of the building. 

MILTON DICK:  Yeah, a lot of people don't know that every bit of furniture here in the parliament is made here, right here in the room and everything from replica maces that we're rolling out to schools across Australia, to cabinetry work, chairs, and even name plates.

LAURA TINGLE:  Every aspect of the building and its contents was designed to reflect as much of Australia as possible, and that legacy has been ferociously guarded since it opened in 1988. 

CARPENTER: We try not to replace. We try to restore original. So we try to keep the original components of the building. 

MILTON DICK:  So basically, 90 per cent of the furniture, the chairs, the desks, the cabinetry, is exactly as it was. So the original designers wanted to make sure that it was timeless. 

So when the building opened in ‘88, in 200 years, which is the lifespan of the parliament, I'm not sure if you'll still be here or I’ll still be Speaker, but that it's going to be the continuation of that design.

LAURA TINGLE:  Well, I know you've got a really busy day ahead. So we should probably go and have a look at the rest of the building.

MILTON DICK:  Well, let's get stuck into it but I want to thank these guys for all your work. Keep it up. Thank you. Have a good day.

LAURA TINGLE:  Upstairs in his office the Speaker meets with colleagues to discuss the business of the day, what legislation and debates are due in the parliament and which dignitaries and delegations are visiting the building. 

MILTON DICK:  So you come in here and then the first thing you really see is the mace. 

LAURA TINGLE:  The actual mace. 

MILTON DICK:  The real mace. We saw some of the mock maces downstairs. This was a gift from King George the 6th in the 1950 because we lost one of the maces along the way. 

LAURA TINGLE:  And basically, this is your symbol of office.

MILTON DICK:  Correct. 

LAURA TINGLE:  And also you're obviously keeping it secure.

MILTON DICK:  Yeah, always.

LAURA TINGLE:  And the great irony of this building is that the speaker has got the best offices in the building.

MILTON DICK:  Oh, I wouldn't quite say that, but it is probably one of the most beautiful designed offices in the building. 

LAURA TINGLE:  It was former Speaker Sir Billy Snedden who oversaw the design of the new Parliament House in the 1980s and he ensured that the Speakers offices would be the most spectacular in the building – a reminder that the parliament should always hold the ultimate sway rather than the government of the day. 

This is where people visiting the parliament like kings, queens, prime ministers, presidents, they all come here.

MILTON DICK:  Well, ensuring that we're welcoming as many heads of states as possible, just as we're welcoming as many Australians as possible, is probably a priority and a major responsibility for the Speaker and something I take very seriously.

LAURA TINGLE:  And the building is designed on these axis which run from right out of the sort of curb side, right through your office through into the House of Representatives. It also means you're pretty close to the chamber, and able to get in there if you need to pretty quickly.

MILTON DICK:  No excuse for me missing a division. 

Five minutes before the parliament actually start every day, you'll hear the bells ring right throughout the chamber and then the mace, who is more important than me, will be escorted in and I will follow the mace, down that corridor through those ceremonial doors and to the first green door on the right. And I'll follow the mace in, and the first order of business will be to lay the mace on the table. 

For me to bow and acknowledge both sides of the chamber and then for members to show their respect to the Speaker. To do an acknowledgement of country, a prayer and then we get on with the business of the day. 

LAURA TINGLE:  Like his predecessors, Milton Dick is keen for people to see and understand parliament as much as possible. Even if it means making a tongue in cheek appearance in the ABC series political series, Total Control. 

(Excerpt from Total Control)

But the most visible part of the Speaker’s job involves overseeing debate in the House of Representatives and trying to keep it orderly, particularly at its rowdiest moments – the daily Question Time.

MILTON DICK:  Order, no. Order. 

LAURA TINGLE:  Speaker, we are in a slightly different place to the one that you usually occupy, can you show us around what happens down here?

MILTON DICK:  Obviously, the Speaker's chair, which is where I spend most of my day, and you'll see two dispatch boxes there. One for the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. No documents in there but more lecterns these days. 

LAURA TINGLE:  You make sure that the debate is not just civil but is conducted in a way that gets business of the parliament done?

MILTON DICK:  I like to call myself the unofficial referee of the parliament and there's one word that I like to use as speaker and that's respect. 

So no matter what the debate is, or no matter how passionate the debate is, I want it to be respectful. So I'm sort of the chief respectful officer.

LAURA TINGLE:  The Speaker sometimes is involved in really dramatic moments in the parliament, throwing people out, deciding how a debate gets resolved. Do you feel the weight of that?

MILTON DICK:  The standing orders or the rulebook for the referee contains a series of recommendations and views and ideas of how the parliament and should proceed, and I follow them to the letter, just as a referee does on the footie field, making sure when the whistle is blown, everyone stops, listens to the ref and sometimes people have to get off the field.

I don't like removing people from the House of Representatives, because I think every member represents around 130,000 people and I don't want to see those voices removed from the chamber.

LAURA TINGLE:  Did you always want to be Speaker?

MILTON DICK:  No. 

LAURA TINGLE:  So this meant that you had to learn a lot about those parliamentary rules because they are incredibly complex, aren't they?

MILTON DICK:  I've always had a deep respect for the parliament. The first time I walked into this chamber as a member in 2016, I could barely breathe. I was so overwhelmed, I guess with the feeling of entering this chamber because it is the home of all the decisions that have taken place for our nation. 

So the day that I was dragged ceremoniously to the Speaker's chair, probably will be one of the most important days of my life. 

LAURA TINGLE:  It is a tradition dating back to the earliest days of the English parliament that the Speaker- the person often stuck in the middle of a dangerous, sometimes fatal, conflict between the parliament and the monarch - has to be dragged to his seat to do their  job. 

Do you feel that this parliament is actually behaving itself pretty well?

MILTON DICK:  No two days are the same. I want the Parliament to be respectful. I was raised in a family where how you treat people is how you expect to be treated. 

Whilst the issues are contentious and while the debate can be heated, I just want Australians to know that their parliament is full of a place of respect. 

I think we need to keep working on that and it's my job to hopefully lead by example. 

At 8pm, the House stands adjourned until 9am tomorrow.