Page 2362 - Week 08 - Friday, 21 June 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
money. So, one could well say: Are you going to take the staff? Are you going to take the salary increase? Are you going to take the car? And the answer to all those questions - if I can say this on your behalf - would be yes.
Mr Kaine: He has the car.
MR STEVENSON: I know. I was not necessarily going to say how he got the car; but most people in this Assembly probably already know how Mr Humphries got hold of Mr Kaine's, or, should I say, the people's, new Statesman.
I must admit that nothing that I have ever seen in this Assembly has changed my opinion of political parties one iota, and I must make the point that I do not mean only the major political parties. I do not see any particular differences between smaller political parties. The major ones have been at it longer, and they do it better.
When we talk of stable government, there should be a law against using the term because it is not stable for the people and it is not stable for democracy. It is stable for the parties. People say that what a party represents is the majority expressed will of the party, and that is what they are in existence for.
Mr Prowse mentioned that he could not be bought. I do not say that he could, but there is an irony here because other people would also say that they cannot be bought. There was a gentleman in Tasmania who said that he could not be bought, and someone ended up in gaol as a result of trying to buy his vote after the Tasmanian elections. Yet what we see every day in Australia is people who are being bought; we see members of parliament, in the Labor Party and in the Liberal Party, who have been bought. What they have been bought with is position, cars, power, money, staff, trips, Falcon jets to whip up to Sydney - that is the Federal area; you will have to wait, Gary - and various things like this. Democracy in Australia requires that every member of this Assembly obey the majority expressed will of the people, obey the people that they stand for. I note that Robyn Nolan and some other people have smiles on their faces.
Mrs Nolan: No, we have not.
MR STEVENSON: And I am not surprised. It was not to do with that?
Mrs Nolan: No.
Mr Humphries: What is your price, Dennis?
Mrs Nolan: Voters' veto?
MR STEVENSON: Once again, let us make the point.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .