Page 446 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
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votes, you could be in power. This is what the Leader of the Opposition, in interjections during Mr Stevenson's speech, conceded tonight. I will look very carefully through today's transcript. I can assure you, Mr Speaker, that the people of the ACT need to be warned about this bunch opposite - and they sure will be.
MR CONNOLLY (10.44): Mr Speaker, the Labor Party's position on the future electoral system in Canberra is clear, as it always has been: We favour a referendum, and at that referendum we will argue for single member electorates - the system that, on all evidence available, is the system that people want. I am heartened that we will be successful in that campaign by the arguments I have seen tonight.
No parliament can ever have seen the sight of a bunch of politicians terrified at the thought of having to fight a campaign in single electorates. Imagine the Liberal Party's argument! As the Leader of the Opposition points out, the Liberal Party says, "We cannot have this system because we could not win a single seat". They are probably judging well the discretion of the Canberra electorate who would be wise, on the Liberals' performance in government, not to give them a single seat. But it is quite bizarre and unprecedented to have a government that is admitting that it would not win a single seat.
One can have governments that are concerned that they may slip a few seats at an election and that they may not do as well because of their performance. They usually pretend that they think they will win an election. Never has a government said publicly, "We would not win a single seat if we had the electoral system that applies in every mainland State in Australia" - Tasmania excepted, of course, not being a mainland State - not to mention the Northern Territory, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and the list goes on.
A government that concedes that it would not win a single seat! What an extraordinary position that is. And, indeed, how unlikely it would be for any party to sweep the board. That has never happened in any electoral system in Australia. It has never happened in the Northern Territory, which is an equally small electorate in terms of numbers and an even smaller electorate in terms of the number of constituents per seat. It is a bizarre argument but one which will serve the Labor Party well in explaining to the community why the system that they have said they want is obviously the best system to have. The community will simply laugh at the Liberal Party's opposition which is based on the notion, "Do not give us this system because we know that you would never vote for any of us". It is bizarre.
Ms Follett: Quite right, though.
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