Mark Parton, a Liberal member for Brindabella, has been elected to be the speaker in the ACT Legislative Assembly.
He will take over the role from Joy Burch who served as the speaker for the territory's parliament for eight years. She did not contest the election.
Mr Parton was elected as speaker in the ceremonial first sitting of the 11th ACT Legislative Assembly. Andrew Barr was also formally elected by the Assembly as Chief Minister.
"I want to express my thanks for the honour that the Assembly has conferred on me and it is an immense honour," Mr Parton said.
"I feel genuinely humbled, I have enormous respect for this parliament."
Mr Parton served as deputy speaker in the last term. He had been pursuing the role and his path to the speakership was essentially settled when the ACT Greens decided to sit on the crossbench.
If the Greens had formed government with Labor, the speaker would have likely come from Labor.
The Greens' Andrew Braddock was elected as the deputy speaker.
In his first comments to the chamber, Mr Parton remarked on the Greens' decision while promising to provide strong leadership in the role.
"It's going to be a fascinating four years given the dynamics that have been revealed in the last 24 hours but that dynamic will require strong direction, leadership and collaboration. Some of that coming from this chair," he said.
"I vow to provide that leadership, direction and collaboration but I will also never forget members, that this chamber is populated by 25 humans who agree on more things than they disagree on and who all deserve respect and the ability to function in a safe and respectful workplace."
Mr Parton was dragged to the chair by Mr Barr and fellow Liberal member Ed Cocks. This is a tradition for the election of a new speaker as the role used to be considered a dangerous one which members did not want to hold.
Mr Barr nominated Mr Parton for the role.
Mr Parton was the second-highest polling candidate in last month's territory election, with only the Chief Minister scoring a higher number of first preference votes.
The Liberal member for Brindabella backed former opposition leader Elizabeth Lee in the recent leadership spill. He also unsuccessfully nominated for deputy leader.
"In the days following the election, I had some conversations with Elizabeth Lee and I pledged to her that I would support her bid to retain the leadership," he said in a video posted online ahead of the party room meeting.
"And here's the deal, my friend, if I tell you that I'm going to do something, it means that I'm going to [do] it. ... So I will be backing Elizabeth."
With Mr Parton in the speaker's chair it will mean the Liberals will have to form a shadow cabinet with seven members as Ms Lee has previously said she would not seek a position on the frontbench.
Mr Parton will also have to keep a closer eye on the Assembly's code of conduct. He breached the code last term in a TikTok video when he used footage from him as deputy speaker.
In the video he said: "members I understand that is the wish of the Assembly to suspend for lunch. That being the case the chair will be resumed at 2pm."
The Tiktok then switched to Mr Parton in his office eating KFC, with music that often plays in commercials from the fast food chain.
Mr Parton apologised for the video following the breach.
