Page 3438 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 19 September 1990
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Ms Follett: It has been declared.
MR STEVENSON: It was not declared when it should have been declared. It was declared only when the matter was brought up in the Parliament, unfortunately. We also have the matter of fluoridation. I believe that the people should not be compelled to take any drug, certainly not via the water supply, as a general principle. But I also stand for the principle of the majority expressed will of the people. Our surveys show that the majority of people in Canberra do not want compulsory fluoridation of the water supply.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Relevance, Mr Stevenson.
MR STEVENSON: I think the relevance, Mr Speaker, to representative government, of honesty and integrity in government is to look at some practicalities; let us look at the actual issues. It is all very well talking about honesty, integrity and representative government, and then working against it or doing absolutely nothing about it. Can there be anything more relevant than what happens in this Assembly and what happens with the Royal Canberra Hospital when 46,000 people signed a petition saying they did not want it closed and yet it is going to be closed?
Ms Follett: A good point, and these parties promised it would not close.
Mr Kaine: Could they produce the $64m to keep it open? Be sensible, Dennis!
MR STEVENSON: We will be talking more about that tonight at the event. Also, in respect of school closures, the members of this community want their money - it is their money - spent on keeping schools open. We are supposed to be elected representatives, not dictators. If the people want their money spent on schools and the hospitals, that is where it should be spent. Perhaps there could be less spent on members; perhaps there could be less spent in other areas.
So, one of the most important principles that we can ever look at, as mentioned in the motion by the Labor Party, is representative government. People in Canberra indeed want that.
The highest result we are getting on our surveys is that people want the principle of voters' veto. They want the opportunity by way of petition, perhaps on one set day a year, to have a say on issues that they want a say on. Shall we look at what has been, unfortunately, the ACT Labor Party policy on the voters' veto? When I brought the matter up, Rosemary Follett described the voters' veto - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Stevenson, I do not believe this is relevant to the debate before the house.
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