Page 3041 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 10 September 1991
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Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders
MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, I am in a position to advise Mr Duby on the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the ACT. The position, Mr Duby, at the 1986 census, which is the last figure available, was that there were 1,160 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the ACT. At that time that included 400 who were actually in Jervis Bay. The current estimate is that there are between 800 and 1,000 in the ACT, but the results of the most recent census will give us an accurate and up-to-date figure.
I ask that further questions be placed on the notice paper.
PERSONAL EXPLANATIONS
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition): I seek leave to make a personal explanation under standing order 46.
MR SPEAKER: Do you claim to have been misrepresented?
MR KAINE: Yes, I do.
MR SPEAKER: Please proceed.
MR KAINE: During question time Mr Berry took the opportunity, in response to a question, to say that the members opposite, which presumably included me, were not interested in stable government, and he then went on to expound the virtues of single member electorates as a solution to that problem.
Mr Speaker, I really do have to object personally to that reference that we are not interested in stable government. In fact, we provided stable government for 17 months. The Labor Party last time lasted for seven months; they will last for only seven months this time. When they throw stones and sling arrows at people, saying that they cannot provide stable government, they have not much of a record to speak from. I think that we on this side of the house, particularly the Liberal Party, have a claim to having provided stable government under very difficult circumstances for 17 months, and, of course, Mr Speaker, we will do so again.
That brings me to the question of single member electorates, which Mr Berry used question time to advance yet again. It is quite clear that most people in the ACT do not want single member electorates. It is not the panacea that the Labor Party makes it out to be. I think that Dr Kinloch, in his question, made the point that it is a proportional representation system that is wanted. What the community of the ACT wants is not a system that will put Labor in office with 35 per cent of the vote. What they are looking for is a government that represents them.
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