Page 2253 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 June 1990
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MR SPEAKER: Mr Stevenson, I suggest to you that you talk to the microphone and to the Chair instead of to the gallery. I dare say you would hate to have your words missed by Hansard.
MR STEVENSON: I am told my voice carries even when I am facing the other way. I move on to the comment by Mr Collaery in the Assembly, that Residents Rally MLAs are allowed a conscience vote. We should have one minute's silence for that. He said at page 2790, "Mr Speaker, while Residents Rally MLAs are allowed a conscience vote under our longstanding policy", and he went on.
Mr Jensen: A conscience vote on banning. Quote correctly.
MR STEVENSON: I always quote correctly, and there is no difference whatsoever in what I said. It says that the Residents Rally MPs are allowed a conscience vote, for which we should have one minute's silence.
Mr Collaery then said:
The other point we have made is that the Bill is more than a taxing instrument. It sets up a franchising structure for the industry. In the absence of uniform legislation, the ACT Act, if it goes into force, will be out of step with the attitude of other States. It may detract from the dignity of the national capital and may damage our family tourist image which we have been working to develop ...
By incorporating the industry into the tax and revenue structure of the Territory the industry is given status. It could, for example, compete for one of Mr Whalan's business awards and otherwise attract incentives and encouragement from government. This could make us the subject of ridicule and condemnation -
and so it should -
by a large proportion of the Australian population.
Mr Collaery continued:
... if anything, they pander, in terms of some of the usage to which my colleague Carmel Maher referred, to lower instincts and they tend to degrade the human condition in its perception of itself.
Further, Canberra is a city of vision. It promotes the image of government, including the best possible image of men and women.
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