Page 391 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
It is very reassuring to hear, as Chief Minister Kaine said, that the Prime Minister of Australia has agreed to the specified request of the Assembly that this house should have the right to determine the number of Ministers that may be appointed by the Chief Minister of this Territory. I notice that that is simply one of the recommendations that have been made in this Assembly's committee report on self-government which came out last year. There are a number of other recommendations there about which I notice I have not heard any chorus of support from the Federal Government. The other recommendations that are there include such things as, for example, not only the number of Ministers that may be appropriate in this Assembly, but also the number of members that this Assembly may have vis-a-vis the size of the ACT population.
Of course, the major issue is that the whole issue of the electoral system be returned and put back into the hands of the people who are best capable of administering it. That is us, the people of the ACT. It is ludicrous to suggest that - - -
Mr Wood: Would you abolish it this time round?
MR DUBY: I never wanted to abolish it. Of course, Mr Berry, who has a very charming way of interjecting during speeches, will undoubtedly agree with all the recommendations that the select committee brought down in 1990. Many of the recommendations in this report are very apt as to the very reason that the No Self Government Party was formed. It points out what the delinquencies are in terms of that relationship - not only in the electoral side of things, but also in the financial management side and in financial agreements between the Commonwealth and the Territory.
I notice that I have not heard anybody from the Labor Party supporting the very recommendations that were made to the effect that negotiations for financial agreement between the Territory and the Commonwealth, and other areas along that line, should be entered into and continued with the Commonwealth. I hear that nobody is supporting that at all from that side of the Assembly.
Mr Berry: Because we are talking about a referendum; that is why.
MR DUBY: That is right. I have not heard anyone from that side mention a referendum as yet. Ms Follett, in her usual way of distorting the truth, said today that for example - - -
Mr Berry: A bit close, I think.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Duby, I would ask you to withdraw that comment.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .