Page 2606 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 8 August 1990
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Mr Wood: It is a very good committee.
Dr Kinloch: I agree with that.
MR STEVENSON: It is a good committee, as our chairman says and as is reiterated by Dr Kinloch, another member. I am sure that Mrs Nolan and Ms Maher would agree. We are getting some very strong support there. It is indeed a committee of every party in the Assembly.
Mr Wood: The only one.
MR STEVENSON: Yes. Every party in this Assembly is represented on the Social Policy Committee.
Ms Maher: Michael Moore is not on it.
MR STEVENSON: Michael Moore is not a party, he is an independent. Every party is represented on the Social Policy Committee. All I am asking is that the Alliance wait until 20 November and see what comes out of the inquiry. Under those various terms of reference I have spoken to many people within the Canberra community and I have not the slightest doubt there are very valuable savings to be made. These savings would, I feel, quite easily equal the proposed savings that the Alliance has indicated would result from closing schools.
We look at referendums. Gary Humphries has mentioned that a referendum can cost a lot of money and indeed it can. But equally there are methods whereby referendums can be held that are far less expensive. One of the methods - there are many and I will not go through them all - is that members of the community can have the opportunity to give their vote at a post office over a period of two or three weeks. Indeed, if voting in referendums were not compulsory that would also save time for those people who did not want to vote.
Either way, what we are doing here is actually what government is supposed to be about. Parliament is supposed to be about representing the will of the people. We are called representatives; the word comes from represent. It is actually to represent something and that something is the will of the people. I do not seek in any way, shape or form to make anyone wrong. All I suggest is a workable solution that will not take much time, that will give the people of Canberra their inalienable right to have a valid say in what happens to their own lives, the lives of their families and the community they live in.
In debating this matter, I would ask that all members of this Assembly do so from a point of view of agreement. Let us look at what we can do by working together. Every member of this Assembly has abilities which, I think we all agree, they are only too happy to use for the benefit of Canberrans. Let us put those abilities to use. Let us put the knowledge and the abilities of people within the
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