The three rural MPs, who will be crucial in the formation of Government, have succeeded in their push to bring more integrity and transparency into parliament by helping negotiate bipartisan support for major changes to the role of the speaker, the committee system, question time, and most significantly the importance of all local members, regardless of their party or ministerial status.

Reforms to matters of public importance (MPIs) and private members bills (PMBs) should allow more community-driven issues to be put up for debate, a major triumph for the independents.

Crucially, the reforms will also see the installation of an independent speaker, which will be given more authority to rule on standing orders and relevance of questions.

Local members will be given more authority and opportunity to participate in parliamentary debate and the moving of legislation.

The Government Executive will now need to be more "flexible, consultative and engaged" with the parliament's 150 local members if the reforms are to work, and private members bills will have time allocated for votes in the main chamber, ensuring they will be dealt with.

This change could pave the way for thorny issues like gay marriage and euthanasia to be put to a vote, while key rural matters like protection of agricultural land from mining, quarantine and trade which have often not been tested in the Parliament could also be more prominence.

Question time – the public face of parliament – will be substantially cleaned up with time limits applied to questions and answers, new "relevance" requirements and a preference that no notes be used when answering questions.

An acknowledgement of country and traditional owners will also now be at the beginning of each sitting day.