Page 1443 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 1 May 1990
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both the Federal and Territory governments. We see no point in a Federal office in Sydney and an ACT office in Canberra.
The other issue of enormous concern to me personally and to my party is consumer protection. Whilst this was an area of great interest and reform in Australia in the 1970s, there is a view in some quarters that the economic realities of the 1990s put consumer protection low on the agenda. We would reject that view. There are glaring inadequacies in this Territory in consumer protection laws. One only has to go into one's local supermarket and see the out-of-date food openly on display, and suspected by many to have been trucked down from Sydney after its expiry date has made it unlawful in the surrounding districts, to realise that urgent action is needed. Landlord and tenant reform is another area where Canberra is in the Stone Age.
Mr Speaker, these areas can be addressed quickly. There are no novelties in the problems surrounding Canberra. They are all issues that have been experienced and dealt with by reformist Labor State governments in Australia in the last decade or more. We would seek urgent attention to be paid to these problems and would suggest that, rather than reinventing the wheel, we derive such assistance as we can from the reforms already on the statute books in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales as a result of the efforts of the Labor governments in those States.
Planning is another issue of concern to all of us in the Territory because it is central to the quality of life that has made those of us who choose to live in Canberra make that decision and probably has made those born in Canberra decide to stay here. I will be seeking to devote considerable attention to that issue in the coming months and years.
Mr Speaker, above all, as members of the Labor Party we are members of a movement committed to reform. I thank those of my colleagues who supported my candidature, in particular Mr Terry Higgins, QC, president of my local branch, who was of great support and encouragement to me in electing to stand. I thank as well all those members of the party who supported my candidature.
The Australian Labor Party, as I said earlier, has often been dismissed as a party born in the 1890s and welded to a structure that is no longer relevant. In the mid-1970s, following the disastrous defeats for the Federal Labor Government, many learned commentators said that Labor was locked to the traditions of the past and, as a party connected with the trade union movement, had no future. I reject those views strongly. The connection between this party and the Australian trade union movement is a proud one and one to be maintained. It is never a popular course to stand up in any parliament, in any forum in Australia, and defend the trade union movement. It is very easy to attack the union movement. The press makes it easy by
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