Page 408 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
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This is what we said in our conclusions:
The most important conclusion on this matter is the requirement for the people of the ACT to take control of their own electoral system. However, this power should not be given lightly.
We went on to comment, as I did before, about the requirement for a referendum and a majority greater than a simple majority to change. We supported a major overhaul of the system to remove the anomalies of the much modified system. Basically we were really saying that it was important for the people of the ACT once again to take control of their destiny and really do something with self-government; so that we do not have, as people often say, a Clayton's self-government without any powers whatsoever.
MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (8.44): My comments are going to be short. What I have noticed in the debate this evening is a quite natural tendency from various sides of the Assembly to support their own particular hobbyhorse as to which style of electoral system should be in place in the ACT. I think we need to go back to the actual terms of this motion put up by Mr Moore this evening. It simply says that this Assembly is calling upon members of the House of Representatives and the Senate to adopt the recommendation of the Australian Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, namely, the report of the inquiry into the ACT election and electoral system.
I notice that there were no minority reports. It would appear that the august members of this Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters - who, by the way, were Mr Michael Lee, Senator Jim Short, Mr Michael Cobb, Mr Michael Lavarch, Mr Warren Snowdon, Dr Michael Wooldridge, Senator Michael Beahan, Senator Brian Harradine, Senator Jean Jenkins and Senator Chris Schacht - following their deliberations, have come up with one firm, clear recommendation, and that is that the Federal Government conduct a referendum in the ACT which will allow the people of the ACT to chose their own electoral system.
Some of the good-hearted bantering that has occurred in this debate tonight has side-tracked the general point of Mr Moore's motion, namely, that the members of the Federal Parliament, in both the lower and the upper house, should endorse that unanimous recommendation of that committee and initiate steps to ensure that that recommendation is implemented; namely, that a Commonwealth funded referendum which allows the people of the ACT to choose their own electoral system be introduced, and introduced posthaste. It is a shame that people are talking about putting time frames on it; that such a thing should not happen before such and such a date, or after such and such a date. The fact is that that recommendation is already, I believe, over a year old, and to date no action has been taken on this issue.
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