Page 407 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
thirds of voters agree to the change. It may also be appropriate for a majority of 12 members to be required to send the matter to a referendum. Such requirements should be included in the current legislation or the ACT Constitution well before the next election is due.
The point in relation to this, to follow on from my colleague Mr Kaine's comment about why that should be referred across to us, is that if it were referred across to us with those sorts of powers there would be no problems and no concern, because there would be a clear requirement for those groups within the Assembly to follow certain criteria to look at it via a referendum.
Let me now comment on the proposals that we have seen argued tonight in relation to single member electorates. Let me just comment on what the Rally said about that in its submission. It said:
The Rally does not accept the argument that single member electorates is the answer. Canberra is divided into a series of easily identified areas which can elect candidates on a proportional representational basis to represent their area. The Rally considers that the poll -
this is the poll that was referred to by the Labor Party -
that showed that people want single member electorates over any other system was flawed. The voters were not really offered any explanations of alternative proposals.
That is a bit like the suggestions that we saw from Bob McMullan about how a single member electorate system, based on the last voting trends, would have elected the same sort of Assembly that we have at the moment. Once again that was an attempt by the Labor Party machine to convince the other people in Canberra that they could support a single member electorate on that basis; but, clearly, that was a specious argument.
The Rally in fact believed, as it said, that there should be some form of multi-member electorates because some form of proportional representation system based on multi-member electorates would provide the best alternative if d'Hondt is to be removed or left. Therefore, as I have already indicated, it was important for the ACT to be transferred that power. In fact it was one of the key conclusions of our paper and proposals. It was also, I might add, one of the key recommendations of the select committee of our Assembly. It was quite clear, also, I would suggest, that it was proposed by the joint standing committee that that power should come across to the ACT eventually.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .