Page 1335 - Week 05 - Thursday, 26 April 1990
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previous reports. Each successive report is added to the list so that that is what distinguishes one report from the other - the latest report is one more report in the list - but it has been my experience that otherwise those reports have added little towards progress in the development of self-government.
The essential turning point in development towards self-government - and I think that all fair commentators would acknowledge this and this particular report does so - was the election of the Hawke Government in 1983. This latest report at page 14 refers to the very first speech made by the Governor-General on that occasion, when he said that the Government was committed to bringing self-government to the ACT.
Throughout the period of the Hawke Government until the royal assent to the legislation on 6 December 1988, there had been a series of steps which were an essential prerequisite to the realisation of the ambitions of those of us who genuinely supported self-determination in the ACT. I must say, without any modesty whatsoever, that it was my honour and privilege to be closely involved in that process.
Significant stages in that process of the Hawke Government started with the immediate efforts of the Hon. Tom Uren when he established the Craig committee to review self-government, and some space is devoted in our report today to the Craig report. Subsequently, upon the change of ministry, Gordon Scholes introduced into the Parliament legislation in 1986 which would have established a Legislative Assembly. Those of us who experienced that particular period will know that the legislation went through the lower house where the Government had the numbers and it faced the difficulties of a Senate where the Government did not have a majority and where the balance of power rested jointly with the Liberal-National Party coalition and Democrat members. You might recall that it was during that period that Senator David Vigor - in fact, I had forgotten his name until I reviewed some of my notes - attracted to himself the title of the "butcher of self-government" because of his role.
The significant feature of that period of discussion about the legislation in 1986 was that really the debate was not about the powers of self-government or the functions of self-government or how government should operate. At the political level the debate always came down to one very narrow issue, and that narrow issue was always the electoral system. That was the basis on which the legislation foundered in 1986 and that was the factor which had previously prevented any serious development towards self-government. Those of us who were close to this issue at that time realised that the issue had to be addressed; something had to be done to find and identify a circuit-breaker which would allow the rest of the debate to continue in an orderly manner.
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