Joy Burch thinks some politicians don't have enough appreciation for the parliaments they sit in.
"They're dismissive of the institution. They see it as a barrier, or an interference, with their great political gains," Ms Burch said.
"To me, you do that at your peril, because in here this place is different to what happens out in the real world."
Ms Burch left the Legislative Assembly this week after two terms as speaker - the longest stint in the position since the start of self-government.
"I just handed the badges out to the new members. ... My only words of wisdom I could offer were: remain true to what got you in here. And that's to serve," she said.
"Respect this institution. Be a good parliamentarian, and the benefits will flow after those good platforms, you've got those good, honest pillars. The rest will come, in my view. Well, that's been my attitude."
Ms Burch, who has a background as a nurse, was elected as a Labor member for Brindabella in 2008. She served as a minister but resigned from the frontbench in January 2016 after a series of controversies and a police investigation into her office.
Ms Burch was Labor's nominee to become speaker after the 2016 election, defeating the incumbent Vicki Dunne, a Liberal member, for the position in a vote on the floor of the Assembly.
"Come 2020, the opposition didn't contest at all. And I think, you know, quiet words with the people in the opposition, [I had done] a good job, a steady pair of hands," she said.
"And I showed that you can be speaker and you don't have to jump off the floor to get into the political policy debate.
"The two speakers previous to me were very active on the floor, prosecuting their policy agendas, which is fine for them to do as a politician. But I actually think it's the wrong way of confusing the two roles - of being completely impartial but then getting on the floor and giving everyone a good whack about their policy position."
Ms Burch said she hoped her approach to the position would set a precedent for future speakers.
"And my view is, regardless of where it comes from - and I clearly support a Labor speaker - be that impartial speaker. I think that is absolutely a hallmark of what you need to do," she said in an interview before the Liberals' Mark Parton was appointed unopposed as speaker for the 11th Assembly.
Ms Burch said being an impartial speaker did not mean a representative was unable to do community and policy work.
"You just don't do it from that platform. You do it other ways," she said.
Ms Burch said she thought her constituents were astute enough to understand the work she did in the community, even while she occupied a unique, impartial role within the Assembly.
"Being the best performer in the chamber here in many ways doesn't fix the problems, you know, in education and housing," she said.
"And people tend to think politicians are seeking all the headlines and, you know, I'm not going to be indifferent. There are good headlines and bad headlines to be had by all.
"But at the end of the day, a headline is not going to make a difference in and of itself to an individual and a family. And if you can make that one difference, that's what gets me up."
Ms Burch said the Legislative Assembly has matured over time, even though it was still a very young parliament. In NSW, there were 200 years of parliamentary history, while the ACT's parliament is still comparatively inexperienced, without as many world-shattering changes testing its strength, she said.
"I think we have got better. This parliament, and this Assembly, well, certainly under my watch, has always looked out. Look in: what do you need to do to tidy yourself up? Be stronger process-wise? Allow the freedom for people to be innovative," Ms Burch said.
"But also to look outside and go, 'What do other parliaments do and how can we bring that back down here?'"
Ms Burch pointed to changes to question time - allowing opposition members to prosecute a line of questioning, rather than requiring all members to ask a question - and changes to the committee system as improvements.
"We now do our divisions just by name. We're slowly moving away from gender-based titles, which is reflective of a more modern community. I don't think the institution itself would have even thought about that, or let alone implement it, 20 years ago. It would have just been completely left field," she said.
Ms Burch said the incident in the last term in which WorkSafe ACT issued a stop-work notice on the Assembly, following a phone call from a minister seeking advice, was personally very difficult.
The notice had been issued because of concerns about COVID-19 safety management during committee hearings. But it represented a breakdown in the separation of powers fundamental to parliamentary democracy. Now a memorandum of understanding is in place to prevent future overreach.
"I wasn't having a bar of it because it was just fundamentally wrong. It took too long to resolve, even though it was resolved fairly quickly. It should never have happened," Ms Burch said.
"And I still get quietly asked, 'You said you would go to court, would you have ever done it?' And I went hell or high water, I would have done if common sense didn't prevail."
Ms Burch said the next Assembly would be a fascinating parliament, thanks in part to the return of independents to the chamber. She admitted she'd watch the live stream from afar.
And now that the institutions of self-government have matured and Canberra's population continues to grow, is it time for the Assembly to expand, too? Ms Burch says the work is still manageable for 25 members, but it will get more challenging as the city grows.
"I'd say the community should be asking for it first rather than the politicians offering it," she said.
