Page 2337 - Week 08 - Friday, 21 June 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
SUSPENSION OF STANDING AND TEMPORARY ORDERS
MR STEFANIAK (7.38): Mr Speaker, I move:
That so much of standing and temporary orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Stefaniak from moving a motion to amend standing orders.
The motion will be:
Omit standing orders 5A and 5B and substitute the following standing orders:
"5A. The Leader of the Opposition of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory shall be the Leader of the largest non-Government party with the consent of the Member.
5B. In the event that the two largest non-Government parties are of equal size, the Assembly may elect a Leader of the Opposition and the election shall be conducted by the Speaker in a similar manner to the election of Chief Minister.".
After the extraordinary events of this afternoon - and, indeed, it might well be, Mr Duby's short-lived day as Leader of the Opposition - I think, perhaps regrettably in some respects, the standing orders have to be amended along the lines of the motion I have foreshadowed.
Firstly, I think a few points should be made. The Opposition, despite what Mr Collaery might think, is not everyone who is not in government. The Opposition, in the Westminster system - and, as I said earlier to Mr Stevenson, like it or not, this Assembly is in the Westminster system - is the major non-government group that in fact shadows the Government. I do not think Mr Collaery is too sure of his facts or knows what he is talking about, because over the last few weeks or so he has consistently described his party as sitting on the cross benches. The cross benches are, in fact, different from sitting in opposition. The cross benches are not opposition; they are quite different. There is a need, in a Westminster system, for an opposition. It is there to represent the alternative when you can have only two views.
Looking at the history of this short-lived Assembly and going back to the first Follett Government, which was a minority government, I think there was then a perception in the community - certainly pushed about by the Residents Rally and, indeed, by Mr Collaery, its leader - that the Residents Rally was going to be the real opposition. He objected to the principle of a Leader of the Opposition on day one, on 11 May, 1989. He stated that the Liberal Party
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .