Page 438 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Preferential voting is also very much part of the Australian political scene and part of the Australian political psyche. It is a system of voting which was, in fact, invented in Australia. It is something that we pioneered. Our Federal system - both the House of Representatives and the Senate - and our various State systems all have preferential voting. It is essential that that be brought home to the Federal Government. What they are proposing in this type of modified d'Hondt system goes against all other systems both federally and in the States in Australia. That is just not on for the people of the ACT. They look likely to foist on us a second bastardised system, we having been lumbered with the first one. That really is not on.
Ms Follett: Senator Hill.
MR STEFANIAK: I am talking about the pure d'Hondt system. It is welcome to see the Federal Government now accept that some of the residual powers they hold should be transferred to the Territory. If the Territory is to have full self-government, those powers have to be given to the Territory; to be exercised through this Assembly and to be judged by the ACT electorate, not by Federal politicians who do not come from Canberra. This is a very timely motion to put to the Federal Government. Those powers should be given to us now rather than later - not after the 1992 elections, Mr Berry, but now.
Mr Berry: You are joking.
MR STEFANIAK: I am not joking at all. Mr Berry mentioned at some stage during the evening that this side did not have any mandate. I have done a few calculations with figures, Mr Berry. In fact, altogether, the Liberal Party, the Residents Rally and the former No Self Government Party constitute about 36.5 per cent of the total 67 per cent vote of all members here. Your lot were 22.8 per cent. Mr Moore had about 320 votes. I cannot quite put that into percentages, but it is about 0.1 or 0.2 per cent. Mr Stevenson had about 7.7 per cent for his Abolish Self Government Coalition - as it then was - making a total of some 67 per cent of the available votes.
As a result of that, 17 members were elected. The other votes were either wasted or informal, or people simply did not turn up. My mathematics indicate that 36.5 per cent out of 67 per cent is, in fact, a majority. It is rather ridiculous to say that we have no mandate. We certainly have the greatest number of percentages of votes out of the 17 members of this Assembly who were elected on 67 per cent of the vote. I suppose that that is also indicative of what a disastrous system we had on the last occasion.
On your proposed amendment to paragraph (3), Mr Berry, concerning single member electorates, the ACT is a city; we have only a couple of thousand people who live in the rural part of it. We are a city. How on earth are you going to
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .