Visit of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Parliament of Queensland

Queensland has around 5.4 million people, roughly the same as Scotland but is 22 times the size.

Yesterday I met the Hon Pat Weir MP, Speaker of the unicameral Queensland Parliament for a private, one hour meeting.

On a brief but packed one day visit to Edinburgh before heading to Cardiff, the Speaker wanted to discuss in detail the remit and work of Scotland’s Finance and Public Administration Committee.

He was surprised at the high level of scrutiny here, relative to Queensland.

The Speaker also said our Parliamentary Chamber was the ‘best behaved he’d ever seen!’

Queensland’s capital is Brisbane, now celebrating its 200th anniversary, having been founded by Sir Thomas MakDougall Brisbane, the Governor of New South Wales who was born in Largs.

Mr Weir is keen to return to Scotland, having been very taken with Edinburgh and possibly to look into the origins of his very Scottish surname.