Page 1336 - Week 05 - Thursday, 26 April 1990
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That stage commenced, I believe, with the appointment of the Hon. John Brown as the responsible Minister after the election of July 1987. It was from that point of time that self-government gained a momentum which was irreversible. There was a commitment and a determination to find solutions to the problems. Three prerequisites were met in that subsequent period which culminated in the passing of the legislation and the royal assent in December 1988.
The first prerequisite was the final consolidation of the elements of the Territory and municipal governments into one, single administrative unit. In hindsight, I now believe that, had the 1986 legislation been passed and had there been an election then, self-government would have foundered because it had not properly gone through the processes of consolidation. It was during this period that we saw that come to fruition. Except for some elements such as justice, which stayed with the Attorney-General, over that period virtually every element of municipal and territorial government was brought together under the one, single administrative unit.
Leadership was provided through the appointment of an officer with firm authority. It was not something that happened overnight; it happened over a period of time. First of all, various statutory authorities were collected together under one Federal Minister - notably the Health Authority and the Schools Authority. At first, while they came under the umbrella, they still remained independent of the central administration and reported directly to the Minister. That gradually changed, and it was John Brown who insisted on an administrative arrangement being established where he worked through one administrative head. The associate secretary appointed in that period was to be that particular person.
The second aspect which was so significant during this time was that for the first time the Commonwealth Treasury and the Commonwealth Department of Finance acknowledged and accepted the concept of self-government. I am quite sure that they were partly motivated in that acknowledgement by their own self-interest, because I am sure that they could see the benefits that would accrue to the Commonwealth by going down the path of self-government and simultaneously placing a self-governing ACT Territory on the same financial basis as the rest of the States and Territories of Australia. We are now having to suffer and, in some cases, to make those hard decisions which are related to that aspect.
But, finally, the most important development during this period was the identification of the circuit-breaker, the identification of an electoral system which would form the basis of legislation and which would make possible the successful passage of that legislation through the Senate.
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