Page 3032 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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What has happened is that, because we have not followed the recommendations of every Attorney-General in Australia, Canberra has become the porn capital of Australia. I have given notice today that I will move on the next day of sitting a Bill for an Act to ban X-rated videos. The Liberal Party platform says that the sale, hire and distribution of X-rated videos will be banned. I call on them to support the Bill.
These two things, I feel, are very important to Canberrans. I mentioned that in the media and made no hidden agenda about it. I said, "This is what I want, these two things". Someone said, "If the Liberals gave the people the voters' veto, what would you think?". I said, "I would be encouraged". And they said, "And what if somebody said they would not give the people the voters' veto?". I said, "I would be discouraged". Unfortunately, I am discouraged - for the moment.
There was another option I had with the two blocks of eight. If those blocks remained and I abstained, that would have abolished the Assembly. The Canberra Times, last Saturday I believe, said, "Will Dennis Stevenson get his long-cherished dream to abolish the Assembly?". Once again, I was interested in what Canberra people wanted and we have been surveying them. Some 78 per cent of people do not want this self-government. Do not worry about who runs it - 78 per cent of people do not want it. On 4 March those same people, with a few more, made the figure 84 per cent. It has only dropped 6 per cent.
If I was not going to see any benefit for the people out of all this, I was prepared to do the will of the 78 per cent and see it abolished. Some people have suggested that a lot of people would lose their seats. We have all got no doubt about that. Some have suggested that I might lose mine. Well, of course, I could not care less. I did not stand for a seat in government. I stood to abolish it, and everyone here knows full well that, given the opportunity, I would have.
So I made known to the party leaders - the Liberal, the Rally and the Labor Party - that I would be interested to chat along the lines that I mentioned. Earlier, Mr Collaery turned to me and said that he had had no discussions with Dennis Stevenson on vote-winning issues, and that is true. There have been none. But I think the people of Canberra could well question why there have not been.
Mr Kaine could also make the same claim, and again I question why, particularly as Mr Kaine has the title at present of Leader of the Opposition. Presumably I was one of the opposition, and I would have suggested his back would have been well covered by talking to Dennis Stevenson. But there was another agenda that was being followed.
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