Page 436 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
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and that Ellnor said, "What are you doing here?". I said, "I wanted to come and find out what this Fabian Society was all about and they said that I could not come". She looked me straight in the eye and said, "Well, it is probably a full house". The fact that it was two-thirds empty, of course, was a pure coincidence. I did the best I could. I tried to make up the numbers. I did what I could. I thought it was fine.
Mr Wood: Where were you tonight? They had another dinner.
MR STEVENSON: I know full well that they had another dinner tonight. I was seriously thinking of going along and I thought, "I have been to one, why bother?".
Mr Wood: Did you pay last time?
MR STEVENSON: Of course I paid last time. The cost was $30. I must admit that I also enjoyed reading the literature. Once again, I think it is important that Canberrans do have an opportunity to have a say. I must admit that certain people - when Datacol does not give them the right information on which to have a valid say - can make wrong decisions, like all of us. Governments should be about: One, giving people the information that they have access to; and, two, allowing people to have a say.
MR STEFANIAK (10.16): That is a very hard act to follow. I am not exactly certain, after that incredible, amazing and most entertaining speech by Mr Stevenson - - -
Mr Duby: What was the relevance of it?
MR STEFANIAK: I do not know whether the fact that he is or is not in favour of Mr Humphries' motion is relevant. I will assume that he is at least in favour of paragraph (1) of the motion, because that is the point I want to deal with first. It seems that paragraph (1) of Mr Humphries' motion is, in fact, supported by everyone here for various reasons.
The Labor Party's motives become quite clear when we come to Mr Berry's amendment. That paragraph reads that this Assembly welcomes the Federal Government's intention to repatriate to the people of the ACT through us, its elected representatives, the power to determine their own electoral arrangements. Everyone, I think, including Mr Stevenson - although I am not too sure after that speech - certainly supports that.
Let us face it, the Federal Government did not do a terribly good job when we had the elections in 1989. It took two months to count that incredible ballot paper. It was something which did, in fact, make the whole idea of ACT self-government a bit of a joke throughout the Commonwealth. It was a quite weird system which was not used elsewhere in Australia - indeed, anywhere else in the world. It was, in fact, a modified d'Hondt system -
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