Page 2309 - Week 08 - Friday, 21 June 1991
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I wonder whether the populace at large, and the media, see it in the same limited way. In case any members consider that what we are proposing today is somehow new, or has not been canvassed before, let me remind them of an article written by me which was printed in the Canberra Times on 21 March 1989. In that article I referred to the opportunity for our new parliament to set the scene for parliamentary reform in Australia. If I may take the liberty to quote from that article, I said:
Will the new Assembly take the procedures used by the House of Representatives or the Senate and, with minor amendments, entrench some of the archaic practices they contain, or will they bite the bullet and seek to drag them kicking and screaming into the last years of the 20th Century?
Unfortunately, as we have seen, both major parties in our Assembly continue to be wedded to this archaic and inefficient adversarial system, which is surely an inappropriate format for such a small legislature.
I welcome the comments made by Mr Kaine in this matter this afternoon. Who can forget the many voters who rejected the duopoly and either voted to abolish what had been forced upon them or at least sought to establish a council style of legislature without the trappings of the executive system? The current system means that we have a very overworked executive, while the talents and abilities of the remaining Assembly members are underutilised. With only 17 elected members, that is surely a very wasteful way to administer this Territory.
Our local community has made its feelings on this matter quite clear. By and large, they despise this Assembly, and the members in it. We can blame the Federal Government for the manner in which self-government was established and then left high and dry by them. There is no doubt that the continual sniping and point scoring - the inevitable outcome of an adversarial system - has added to that public perception. Canberrans want us to work together to govern the Territory as effectively as possible, rather than wasting time and resources to work against each other.
Both the former Follett Government and the Alliance Government were unfortunately hampered by the inability of the duopoly to accept that the people of the ACT wanted their views to be heard. And they clearly said, "A curse on both your houses", by voting to support a style of consultative government.
Mr Kaine: Not "a curse"; "a pox", I think, is the expression.
MR JENSEN: Well, a pox. I was being polite, Mr Kaine, in our Assembly. This situation has been reflected in parliaments around the country. The need for reform has never been greater, as Australians have become generally
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