Page 85 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 May 1989
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The proposals which I have outlined are aimed at protecting the quality of life that we enjoy and providing in a better way for those in need. We will work to ensure that Canberra remains a wonderful and healthy place in which to live. We are a caring government committed to consultation with the community. Accordingly I will give high priority to involving the public in the development of proposals for change. Also I will be asking the people on the other benches for their opinion before any of these decisions are made.
MR HUMPHRIES (11.27): I will try to make my speech a little more measured and slower than the Minister's speech, but I have more time for that, I think. I have not given as much care to the preparation as she obviously has. I thank you, Mr Speaker, first of all for designating these speeches in reply to the Chief Minister's address as being in the nature of maiden speeches. We have heard a lot in the last 24 hours about parliamentary traditions, and this of course is one of the more important traditions in British parliamentary democracies.
It is an opportunity for new members to state their personal approach to the task of government or opposition, depending on where they find themselves, and also to put on record their thanks to those who have contributed to their election. I intend to employ those traditions in that fashion. There are other traditions, of course, surrounding the making of maiden speeches. One is that it is the first speech that one makes in the parliament. That of course is a tradition that has gone by the board since, for reasons of administration, we have all had to make speeches of one kind or another so far. It is also principally a speech which is heard without interruption, and I hope I do not give any cause for interruption in the course of this address, but if I do I hope members will restrain themselves.
I am not sure how old the particular tradition is that members be heard without interruption during their maiden speeches. I recall that Benjamin Disraeli made his main speech in the first half of the last century and was greeted, at that time, by sustained interjections and even derision on the part of the other members of the House of Commons. The story, as I am sure members have probably heard before, was that he waited quite some time before making his next speech in the House of Commons. When he chose to make that next speech it was on an extremely dry topic and he was heard - surprise, surprise - in complete reverential silence. I think that politicians with a sense of shame are a dead race. I cannot imagine anything similar to that happening in any of today's parliaments.
I want to outline, Mr Speaker, what I see as the task ahead, not just for me, but also for all the members of this Assembly, and that is, first of all, to be salesmen and saleswomen for our parties and their philosophies. It
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