Page 799 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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issue at a fairly hard pace, but it does come out of the community. I submit that the community feels a deep sense of injustice and outrage at some of the inequalities of life in this city. Those views are shared, as I said during the morning debate, by a large number of retail traders in this city, who are moving behind the Rally on the important issue of their economic circumstance, the failure to properly regulate their business leases, and the like.
I then outlined the welcome speech given by Mr Greiner, the Premier of New South Wales, in introducing the Bill to produce an Independent Commission Against Corruption Act in the State of New South Wales. The Premier drew attention to a number of issues. One statement he made really rang true to me this morning. I will read it out:
No government can maintain its claim to legitimacy while there remains the cloud of suspicion and doubt ...over government...
I submit there have been sufficient illustrated examples of concerns in the ACT Administration to justify some putting to rest of that cloud. It is most regrettable that that cloud lies above the heads of the vast majority of honest, decent, hardworking civil servants in this town. But it is there unpleasantly and, probably without scoring votes on it, the Rally raises the issue. The Rally indicated this morning that an air of corruption fatigue was developing in society and that it could be going hand-in-hand with compassion fatigue; that is, that people were just sick of hearing all of this and were turning off and not reacting to it. As was so eloquently put by my friend Mr Bill Wood in this chamber recently, the people of Queensland themselves were to blame for a lot of what happened to them because they acquiesced in a standard of behaviour which was less than the norm one would have expected in a democratic society.
The danger the Rally sees is that these issues must be attended to soon in Canberra. We need a government which clearly indicates its commitment to bring stability and to address concerns, not only of residents who largely comprise the smaller people in our community, but of builders, developers and all the rest of the people who appear to wonder sometimes whether they have all received a fair run on the goals they have sought. One would hope that the Rally would not have to address this topic for a long, long time. One would also hope that when the Public Accounts Committee of this Assembly gets going there will be a very professional result from the recommendations made and notes already passed to that committee by the Rally.
The Rally does not want to hijack this issue. It is an issue that needs bipartisan support, which, interestingly, Mr Greiner got in New South Wales. Why have we not got it here? We have received support for the implementation of the notice of motion calling for the referral to the Public
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