Page 427 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
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MR BERRY: Well, everybody complains. On the one hand we have somebody complaining that there was selective reading. I seek leave to incorporate that in Hansard.
Leave not granted.
Mr Moore: Seek leave to table it, Wayne.
MR BERRY: I seek leave to table it.
Leave granted.
MR BERRY: There we have it, Mr Speaker. A responsible amendment has been put forward which will ensure that there is some stability in government in the Australian Capital Territory before the decision making process on the issue of electoral systems can be exercised. It will ensure that the people opposite, if it is agreed to, will not have a say in that process because of the concerns that the community have about their ability to do so with the interests of the people of the ACT in mind. It will also ensure, if adopted, and I think it ought to be, that a proper electoral system will be adopted in the Australian Capital Territory; that is, a system of single member electorates incorporating preferential voting.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (9.44): Mr Speaker, had Mr Berry not put forward his amendment I would not have spoken on this matter. I would have thought that every member of the Assembly, just as they supported Mr Moore's motion, would have supported the good sense of the motion that Mr Humphries put forward because, as has already been pointed out, it expresses to the Minister and to anybody else at the Federal parliamentary level who cares to read it the essence of the thinking of this Assembly.
That, essentially, is this: If the Government across the lake has decided to repatriate this power - which we believe to be a good thing - there is no justification for delaying it; it should be done now. Of course, the motion then expresses our concern at this intention to abolish the preferential voting system. That seems to be inherent in what the Minister across the lake has said; the changes that he proposes would include the removal of the allocation of preferences. I think that is a fair statement of the intent of this parliament and what we believe should be guiding the people across the lake in what they do.
But, of course, Mr Berry's amendment introduces an entirely new dimension and I think it demonstrates quite clearly, Mr Speaker, the aberrant thinking of the Labor Party on this issue. Only a matter of half an hour or more ago we voted to support a referendum. Now, Mr Berry cannot wait to cut across that and say, "To hell with that; we only paid lip-service to that referendum stuff; now we want to ask the Federal Parliament to impose upon us the requirement for a single member electorate system".
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