Page 385 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
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preschool in the Causeway, because in those days, believe it or not, with four children under five, we had to take our children to different preschools, because they were all so chock-a-block.
There are differences now. There are socioeconomic differences in our capital. It is vital that we not feed those parochial differences by creating single member electorates. That would be the most profound social vandalism that we could commit.
Ms Follett: Terrifying.
MR COLLAERY: I see that the Leader of the Opposition, who purports to come from a social justice oriented party, is laughing. Let the record show that she is amused by my comments. We must retain a homogeneous population. We must put aside our own personal fears or apprehensions about whether we, as people on the passing stage, are re-elected. The real issue is the continuum of our great national capital and the fabric behind it. That will be seriously damaged if we go towards single member electorates. Some people opposite, in the Labor ranks, must feel a bit ashamed of themselves.
We are all used to the way people cloak the holding of power and the non-empowerment of people. One of the shibboleths of holding power and retaining power, and stopping the empowerment of people, is to talk about the stability of government. When I go through the evidence given to the inquiry into the ACT election and electoral system by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, I go straightaway to what Senator McMullan said, once again, about the need for single member electorates and how it produces stability of government. Permeating all of the Labor Party evidence is the need for stability of government. They even brought someone down from the Northern Territory, a Labor MLA up there, to talk about the stability of government.
That is a smokescreen. It is an absolute smokescreen. We have a very stable town. It is an extremely stable, homogeneous, articulate, aware population. They will not be put on by the Labor Party any more. The Labor Party is unable to see that the bells started tolling a few years ago. It is most unlikely that they will get a majority at the next election. They know that. They know that they need single member electorates as their last chance of holding onto a town that is changing in its political outlook.
The other issue I want to address, in the time available, is the proposal that we just have local government. There are profound constitutional problems in saying that we should just have a council here. One of the problems is that under the Federal Constitution we do not provide for a local government role in running the federation. As Ministers in this ACT Government we constantly supply the
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