Page 3434 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 19 September 1990
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smells because of the actions of certain members in this place. It is the ACT and improving the image of this Assembly that we are concerned about. If you people are not prepared to stand up and deal with that issue, well, I cannot be held responsible for that, because the Labor Party will stand up to this issue and take it through until we get a decision from this Assembly which will improve the image of this place in order that, in future, the people of the ACT can have confidence in the legislators in their Territory.
MR STEFANIAK (11.31): Mr Speaker, we are dealing with the issues here, as Mr Humphries' procedural motion clearly points out. That motion requires the motion concerning the standing committee on ethics to be referred to the Administration and Procedures Committee for consideration, and that committee is to report back here by 1 November - a short period. This is an already existing committee of the Assembly, which does look at things such as this. It is a most appropriate committee, and I think similar questions to this have been referred to it. It will consider the matter to see whether, in fact, we do need a committee such as Ms Follett suggests.
Mr Berry tried to make a lot of mileage in relation to how this Assembly is perceived in the community. He talked about this Assembly having an odour. This Assembly was established, as we know, last year; a large number of the Canberra population did not want self-government. The Commonwealth funding which was promised to us has been reneged on; the Commonwealth, at present, owes us close to $800m that it should have paid and has not. We are in hard financial times in Australia and, of course, we are in hard financial times in Canberra.
Naturally, the community would regard this Assembly as having an odour. It is going to take some time for Canberra to accept self-government. The Chief Minister, in his excellent talk at the Press Club last week, said that perhaps by 1995 people will look back and accept the Assembly and be quite happy with it. I think it will probably take something in the order of about five years for people not only to accept this Assembly but perhaps also to start respecting it. The way they are going to start respecting it is through this Assembly making consistently sensible decisions in the interests of the people of Canberra. Whether the Administration and Procedures Committee ultimately deals with ethics matters - or, indeed, whether it reports back and sees merit in Ms Follett's motion for some sort of ethics committee - is not really going to make one iota of difference there.
The concept Ms Follett raises is certainly very important. There have to be very high ethical standards under which this Assembly and its members operate. Whether that is done and governed by a separate committee or by an existing committee of the Assembly is indeed a moot point.
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