Page 421 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
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first election in the ACT the Labor Party winning 51 per cent of the vote and winning, almost certainly, a clean sweep of the seats in the Assembly. It would win a clean sweep of seats in the Assembly under a single member electorate regime, and people in the ACT, however committed they might be, even to the Australian Labor Party, would not like to see a parliament in which there was no Opposition; but that would be the case with single member electorates.
Ms Follett: No Opposition?
MR HUMPHRIES: Ms Follett would like that, apparently. She would love to have a parliament with no Opposition. She could then contend with the real opposition, the right wing of the ALP.
Mr Duby: She would like to have a party room with no opposition.
MR HUMPHRIES: She would like a party room with no opposition, adds my colleague Mr Duby. But whether the people of the ACT would support an Assembly which had no Opposition is really quite another matter. I think the Labor Party would find pressure to change a system like that absolutely irresistible when the time came round.
My motion, Mr Speaker, expresses a justifiable concern at the Federal Government's intention to do away with preferential voting. It also welcomes the Federal Government's stated intention to repatriate to the people of the ACT the power to determine their own electoral arrangements through the elected representatives of the people, and it calls on the Government to initiate action to do this as soon as possible.
I cannot see any possible reason for delaying this beyond the next election. The only possible reason would be that the Australian Labor Party would like to be in the box seat when the time comes to - - -
Ms Follett: We already are.
MR HUMPHRIES: "We already are", I am told by Ms Follett as she passes by. Apparently the Labor Party would like to be in the box seat when it comes time to decide on the electoral system. Well, Mr Speaker, that is a right which I think the people of Canberra are going to deny the ALP and certainly one to which the Federal Parliament should not be a conspirator.
Some prominent members of the Federal Government have ridiculed some of the activities of this Assembly. Perhaps on occasions they have had some point to that, but on this occasion, Mr Speaker, the boot is on the other foot. It is the Federal Government which has chopped and changed its position on the ACT electoral system. It is the Federal Government which is putting forward a system which is a
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