Page 1944 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The total failure of the Labor Government to provide a forward legislative program to enable Assembly members, and through them the public, to properly scrutinise government legislation.
MR HUMPHRIES (3.14): It is a matter of some sadness, I think, that this motion should today be necessary. I say "a matter of sadness" because this Government began its life with such good intentions and it is sad that it should so quickly have fallen from grace. This matter of public importance, which I can see the Chief Minister is deeply upset about, is one whose sentiments are a reflection of the distance the Government has travelled from its original point of open and accessible government to the point it has reached today in its unwillingness to live up to the ideals it once enunciated. Perhaps, like the Residents Rally, changes have occurred.
This Government sitting opposite touted itself in the days before and since the swearing-in as one of the finest flowerings of democratic principles that this Territory had seen. Words such as "open", "accessible", "democratic" and, in particular, "consultative" were freely used by members of this Government, and indeed members of this Government traded on that concept. I suspect it also won popular support among members of the Canberra community for its willingness to take part in those principles and adhere to them. But the sad reality is that this Government is much the same as many other governments, perhaps all other governments, in this country. The fact is that its openness, its accessibility and its democratic principles stop at the very point where the disadvantages of being open, accessible and democratic start to outweigh the advantages of those things.
Now, such a point is reached in this chamber when it comes to the furnishing of a satisfactory legislative program to members of this Assembly, to non-government members in particular, and indeed through them to members of the public. I consider the Government's failure to provide such a program to be a disgrace. It is contrary, in particular, to the democratic principles which the Government itself has espoused. It shows a contempt, in particular, for this Assembly and for the members of this Assembly in the Government's unwillingness to make information available to them to enable them to do their jobs properly. It shows a desire to play politics with legislation when, in fact, they should be ensuring that in all respects legislation fulfils important public purposes and, above all, has proper public consultation before being passed.
This Government started with ideals of a high-minded nature but I submit, Mr Speaker, that they have been shown to be much like other governments, having feet of clay. I repeat the comments I made last week concerning the need for such a program. The purpose of the program is to enable other parties in this Assembly, and through them members of the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .