Page 1442 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 1 May 1990
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the side of arguing for greater Commonwealth powers at the expense of assertions of States' rights, I realise that the State governments can have an enormous influence on the way people live. That is not to say that one defends States' rights. States do not need exclusive powers at the expense of a central government. What State governments can do is make a real contribution to developing the quality of life as it is lived by members of the community in the community.
Growing up under Don Dunstan in South Australia, one was able to see the real and tangible ways that a social democratic government could improve the quality of life for all citizens, could introduce measures to open society to all its members and could achieve real goals in terms of social justice. It is for those reasons that I was attracted to seek office in this Assembly, because like all my colleagues on this side of the house I believe that this Assembly can be important in delivering real improvements in the quality of life to the citizens of Canberra.
We realise that self-government was not widely popular in this community. We realise that to some extent the first election was treated by some as a referendum on self-government. A number of our fellow citizens chose to vote for parties which claimed to be opposed to self-government. That, Mr Speaker, in my view, will never happen again. The community realises that there is no point in supporting no self-government groups that end up in government. The community realises that it is forced to make a choice. The choice is whether it will be governed by the Australian Labor Party and its vision of social justice or by a conservative government or some form of conservative alliance.
Mr Speaker, I came to law as a first career rather than politics, although I had been involved at university in the Australian Labor Party, in the Young Labor movement as federal president at an early age. I chose to develop a career in law because law, as well as being an instrument of social control, is the primary weapon in the fight for social justice. We are all, as legislators, involved in developing better laws and we on this side of the house believe that law can be a real and effective weapon in achieving the goals of reform of this movement. In the Australian Capital Territory there are enormous and pressing issues of law reform that need to be addressed. (Extension of time granted)
I will be doing my bit in making my contribution to achieve those goals of law reform. I will not dwell tonight on the controversy surrounding the reform of the courts in this Territory. I will, however, refer to the question of human rights enforcement and the need, as seen by those of us on this side of the house, for cooperation rather than confrontation with the Federal Government on that issue so as to provide a human rights office that is open and accessible to all and that can deal with complaints against
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