Page 1337 - Week 05 - Thursday, 26 April 1990
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I personally find it hard to describe the feelings that I experienced when I was present in Geelong in July 1988 when Cabinet met and approved the self-government package. It is an irony that it should have been meeting out of Canberra on the occasion on which that historic decision was made, but so be it. It was certainly an extraordinary occasion and one that I will remember for as long as I live. I remember the excitement of the Minister at the time at getting the legislation through and even at the last minute the negotiations that continued with the Ministers responsible for the financial aspects of government.
Then began a period of feverish negotiation. The introduction of the legislation into the House of Representatives was a pretty formal process. The real action took place in the Senate, and that is where the negotiations took place. Those negotiations resulted in a series of legislative amendments which saw the legislation proceed.
I think that to proceed from a Cabinet decision in July to royal assent on 6 December and an election on 4 March was indeed a remarkable achievement. Many people played a significant role. I would like to acknowledge the role that was played by the Opposition in the Senate at that time, particularly Senator Margaret Reid, and Amanda Vanstone initially and then Senator Robert Hill subsequently. Indeed, Mr Humphries, from this chamber, was also very much involved throughout that period in those negotiations.
Our party, the Labor Party, did not negotiate with the Democrats throughout that period. It was a significant part of the discussions at that time and I think it was probably one of the factors that led to the agreement with the Liberal Party on this. We chose to negotiate solely with the Liberal Party. It was conducted on that basis and it does recognise, I think, our belief in essentially a two-party system within the tradition of Australian democracy.
During that period there was very enthusiastic support from Ministers. If Ministers are not supportive of these sorts of things they just do not go anywhere. The succession of changes of Ministers throughout that period has often been the subject of criticism of the Hawke Government, but we were very fortunate in having Ministers like Gordon Scholes, who was in the earlier phase. In the subsequent successful phase we had John Brown; Senator Richardson, who played an important role in some of the negotiations; Gary Punch; and Clyde Holding. Without their support that result would not have been possible.
Of course, the bureaucracy played an essential role. Many officers could be individually identified, but I wish to name one. Gary Whitley's efforts should be singled out for special mention. After the failure of the 1986 legislation
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