Page 1303 - Week 05 - Thursday, 26 April 1990
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Mr Humphries, in contrast, is on record on numbers of occasions expressing great anxiety about single member electorates. I think he has gone so far as to say - and he can correct me if I am wrong - that we would sweep the pool. Well, I am confident. I do not know whether I am that confident, but it surprises me that Mr Humphries is so lacking in confidence for the chances of the Liberal Party under that system.
Mr Humphries: It is based on the evidence.
MR WOOD: It is based on the evidence? Well, that does not say much for the Liberal Party, I have to tell you, does it? Based on the evidence, they would not win in single member electorates.
I have more confidence, based on the evidence, that the Labor Party would win with d'Hondt or Hare-Clark or single members or whatever. The reasons why my colleagues across the road there have supported d'Hondt are fairly clear. They have come to recognise in the end that the reason why my two colleagues on the committee have opted for d'Hondt is that they recognise that is the best, perhaps the only, way in which they can be returned.
Mr Kaine: The fairest system.
MR WOOD: Oh, the fairest? Yes, the fairest system to get Mr Duby and others re-elected, because obviously the greater the number of people you have in a proportional system, the lower the votes you need to get up. These people are obviously not expecting great swags of votes come the next election.
Mr Duby: Democracy in action.
MR WOOD: Democracy in action? Well, indeed. I have dissented on a few points, for example, about the numbers of people required to support parties and candidates. You can see that in there. I will not repeat them in this speech. I want to add another one. Recommendation 20 refers to a count-back to fill vacancies and it refers to that in the event of something other than single member electorates being used. That is done on the assumption that that count-back maintains the position - I am sure both my colleagues would agree - that party members or independents are replaced by similarly minded people. It certainly does not propose that someone from another party would be the person to fill that vacancy.
Mr Speaker, the report is an endorsement of self-government; there is no doubt about that. The committee was not designed to go out there and to get opinions for or against self-government, but it drew a lot of enthusiastic responses from people who are concerned democrats, people who know elections and electoral systems. They responded, and they said, "Self-government is good; let us get the best system for it we can". In fact, Mr Duby, it is as you hoped, a strong support for self-government.
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