Page 2249 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 June 1990
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They were not my words. They were the words of the Chief Minister in this house on 21 November last year when he spoke so compellingly, so convincingly and, one would assume, so honestly. If integrity has anything to do with it, he will not be Chief Minister at the end of this debate.
But he made those compelling statements as a statesman, and what has happened in the passage of time? I could not put it better than the now Chief Minister put it himself on 21 November. The Chief Minister is condemned, not by my words, but by his own.
Mr Speaker, the people of Canberra were forced into self-government; they were forced to have this Assembly against their will. But, as they have the Assembly, they are entitled to certain propriety. They are entitled to have their representatives show certain characteristics that are associated with a parliament.
These characteristics would include integrity, honesty and courage to make decisions that would validate truth and honesty. Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister and his Alliance group have shown, unfortunately, that they do not have the consistency that is required of people to make decisions on behalf of the overall community. They have shown that they have not been responsive to members of the community in Canberra, to members of the Australian community, and to all State Attorneys-General and their laws which, indeed, ban X-rated videos.
They have abrogated their duty and responsibility to the people of Canberra and to the tradition of parliamentary democracy, because the decision to legitimise and give weight to the pornographic industry that wreaks such havoc in our society was made by them when they rushed through the porn protection Bills in this house two days ago, leaving little or no time for the people of Canberra to rise up, as they know the people would have done, and demand that the words spoken in this Assembly by the Chief Minister and others actually mean something.
Mr Speaker, without honesty, without integrity, we can have no parliament; we can have no government. We can only have a rubber stamp legitimising illegitimate actions and decisions by power brokers, elitist groups and cliques within political party machines.
In this house on 4 July last year I raised a matter that was to do with parliamentary propriety, with constitutional integrity, with the very fabric of self-government itself. It was to look at the constitutional legality of this Assembly. It was not to make a determination as to whether the Assembly was illegal or not, but simply to have the courage, to have the integrity, to have the honesty to refer the matter to a committee and look at it. That the members of this Assembly voted against that motion by 16 to
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