Page 4679 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
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referendum the Hare-Clark system will get up, because I have talked to a large number of ordinary members of the Labor Party and Labor supporters who prefer it as they see that it is inherently fairer than single-member electorates.
I stress that I think those two electoral systems are the appropriate ones between which a choice should be made within the ACT because they are readily understandable by the citizens of the ACT. But, when one does look at all the various equations in relation to both those electoral systems, I think the one which is fairer for the ACT, which would provide the best and fairest representation and which would best enable this little parliament to work properly would be the Hare-Clark system.
I would hate to see 16 or 17 Labor members breaking off into their factions and having open faction fights; you manage to keep it behind closed doors, which is to your credit. But I think having one faction that loses out becoming the effective opposition is not a terribly satisfactory situation. It is much better to have some other completely different grouping of people, be it the second party or the second party plus a couple of Independents or other parties, as the actual opposition.
So, in this discussion I think it is very important to look at what actually will be happening in February 1992. Michael, I would be delighted to get the Robson rotation in beforehand in any form, but I doubt it. I would personally prefer the Senate electoral system rather than the d'Hondt system, but I do not think the Federal Parliament is going to give us any joy there. We should have picked our proper electoral system earlier rather than have to wait for the referendum, but so be it - it is too late now; it is like crying over spilt milk. One looks forward with interest to what the ACT population will do with the referendum because either of the two systems is certainly preferable to the d'Hondt system, which I suppose has worked after a fashion but which, in many respects, has been discredited.
It is an interesting matter of public importance, and it is very relevant, especially when one considers the 15 February referendum, because that is one of the most relevant things that are going to happen to this Territory; it is going to set the format for this Assembly for decades to come.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (3.50): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am not impressed with Mr Moore's arguments. He stood up and claimed that, because the Commonwealth Electoral Commission argued in a submission to a Federal parliamentary inquiry that the Senate system be employed at the next election, that is sufficient ground so to do. The d'Hondt system certainly has been discredited, and the major factor for that discrediting is the sabotaging of that last election count
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