Page 395 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
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representatives, should carry through to the House of Representatives and the Senate. I am aware, Mr Speaker, that debate on Mr Humphries' motion will follow this and I indicate at this stage that I also intend to support that motion.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (8.03): Mr Speaker, the Assembly tonight is considering a matter of some considerable importance. I want to indicate that we on this side of the house share Mr Moore's view of the importance of this matter and support his view that it was worth putting forward as a matter of public importance today. I have to say that I completely disagree with those opposite who seem to think that this matter was somehow instigated by the Government to buy some time.
I have to indicate that in my view there are few things that we could be discussing which would be as important as this particular matter. The future of the ACT's entire democratic system depends very largely on the credibility of the electoral system. It is no surprise to anybody in this house that the many slurs and attacks that were made on the Australian Capital Territory's electoral system after the last election reflected on the operation of this Assembly. It is no surprise or lesson to anybody here that the shape of our electoral system very largely shapes the way people see us and the Assembly's work. We ought to be guaranteeing, through this debate and by other methods, that the ACT has a good, respectable and fair electoral system. I think Mr Moore's motion will contribute to that.
I am very pleased to see him add those words "Commonwealth funded". It is important for the ACT to establish as quickly as it can a decent basis on which to proceed into the future; but it is also important for the Commonwealth to accept its responsibility, even at this stage, some two years after the granting of self-government, to give the ACT a solid basis on which to proceed. It was the Commonwealth's responsibility in 1989 to provide the ACT with a fair basis on which to proceed to self-government, and it is still the Commonwealth's responsibility to ensure that we have the means to settle the important determining question of our electoral system.
I therefore make no apology for supporting the idea that the Commonwealth should fund that referendum. It is its responsibility to ensure that the people of the ACT inherit - and this very much is a matter of inheritance - a decent basis on which to proceed. That basis should be underpinned by a referendum, and it follows that the Commonwealth has some responsibility in this area.
Whether future referenda are funded by the Commonwealth is another matter, and I do not express an opinion about that; but certainly the initial settling and setting of our electoral system is very much a matter for the Commonwealth's involvement.
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