Page 2615 - Week 09 - Thursday, 8 August 1991
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MR STEVENSON (3.25): The ACT faces serious economic hardships. I introduced this matter of public importance on behalf of the large majority of people in Canberra who are unable to speak in this Assembly and to represent their wishes. Our polls have shown that 93 per cent of people in the ACT believe that members of the Legislative Assembly should not accept the pay increase which was granted by the Remuneration Tribunal and which came through in the last pay packet, which was last week.
The particular survey asked: Should members of the ACT Legislative Assembly accept the recent pay rise? I asked 200 people in two different locations - in the Garema shopping area and at Woden - and various people were approached to get a cross-section. If anybody doubts that that is the percentage, or wonders what it is, by all means, I and, I am sure, the other citizens of Canberra would invite them to do their own polls. A number of people who were spoken to expressed the feeling that, if the members were producing what the people of Canberra want produced, they may take a different viewpoint; but, whereas they felt that there might be a lot of activity, they did not feel that there was a lot of production.
It is very important that everybody is rewarded for production. I think most people would readily agree that if we could balance the budget, if we could supply the various benefits that people in Canberra want, members of this Assembly should be very well paid. However, the people of Canberra feel that that is not the case. I speak, as I said, on their behalf. I think it is very important that we in this Assembly lead by example. I feel that accepting this pay rise, in spite of the will of the people, does not show that responsible example.
The Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, has stated in her current budget strategy statement that the ACT Government should chart a course that will allow us to live within our means. Indeed, it could, and it should; but we all need to do that together. The Chief Minister, in that same budget strategy statement, has acknowledged the recession that we are having, has said that further reductions in Commonwealth funding will occur, and has asserted that all future community needs cannot be met. I do not know whether everybody in Canberra understands that the Chief Minister has stated that the future community needs of Canberrans cannot be met.
The Chief Minister said also that we must attain a fairer society; she spoke of social justice. I believe that a fairer society can be attained in the ACT only by representing the community, not by disregarding their will. I know that members feel strongly about this matter, and I do not doubt that some will try to attack me personally; but it is also something about which I feel strongly, and I, like everybody else, have a right to speak on the matter. In this case I speak for the vast majority of
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