Page 4141 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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MR STEVENSON: What more relevance could we have, Mr Prowse, as you of all people would know?
MR SPEAKER: Please stick to the debate.
Mr Kaine: We happen to have a policy on it. Don't you like that policy?
MR STEVENSON: It is what I talk about. It is the principles, the Liberal Party principles that stand for individual rights, that stand for real government. I would not leave the Labor Party out of this. At some time in the past they did as well. I think we would all benefit by studying the early Liberal Party principles and the early Labor Party principles. The early Labor Party principles were brought to our minds earlier today when Mr Prowse spoke of citizens referenda. After all, the Labor Party supported the right of citizens to have a - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Stevenson, I draw you back to the debate.
MR STEVENSON: Mr Speaker, please. Nobody said anything - - -
MR SPEAKER: I did.
MR STEVENSON: So, indeed, the Labor Party had as a major objective of its policy the right of citizens to have a say.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Stevenson! You misunderstood - on purpose, I believe. Please come back to the debate before the chamber.
MR STEVENSON: The debate is to do with government and the LA(MS) Bill. It is lambs being led to the slaughter, is it not? There are some inequities. One of them is that members of this Assembly should have the right to use the budget that they are allocated for staff as best they can. You have enough money as an Independent member, as a single member, to pay for a staff member to look after the office functions. That includes answering the telephone and carrying out the numerous and extensive administrative functions that are required of any office - certainly more so in a member's office than a lot of others. There is the money to pay for someone to do that.
However, there is not sufficient money to pay for someone to look after the role of adviser and researcher. There is about half the amount of money for that. What happens is that you either get someone you are not paying correctly or get people who come and go or, if you like, work in a consultant capacity. That has been the situation with my office. People have had to come and go because there is not sufficient money to pay them properly.
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