Page 4685 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
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from the ALP. The sort of parliament in which there is no opposition, no-one to challenge their decisions, is just the sort of Territory parliament that this Government would like.
Mr Kaine: What you would get then is an opposition led by Terry Connolly.
MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed one might, Mr Opposition Leader, or Chief Minister or whatever Mr Berry calls you. It may well be that we would have Mr Connolly sitting over here where the present Leader of the Opposition sits and the Chief Minister over there.
Mr Duby: Yes, with the single Liberal on the crossbenches.
MR HUMPHRIES: It could be. Let us not get too close to the bone, Mr Duby; but it could well be, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. I, for one, reject that scenario, because I believe that this Territory needs an opposition, whatever government is in power; and it needs a balanced electoral system, which it would not have under single-member electorates. I think we all know what Labor is trying to hide, and I would certainly urge - - -
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mrs Grassby): Order! Your time has expired, Mr Humphries.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.09): The Labor Party can smell a stunt coming on here; we can smell a motion coming on about electoral systems, as a careful little dodge, to make it appear as though the Labor Party is a supporter of the d'Hondt system. We are not; we have always said that it is a silly system. What Mr Wood said, however, was that this is a stunt. It is clear that the time for a change in the electoral system for the February election has long passed. This is a waste of the Assembly's time, when we could be getting on with government business.
However, to make the position abundantly clear, on behalf of my party colleagues let me say that if you want to have a vote on this - we hope that we will not redebate it for another hour - we might have unanimity, because we all think the d'Hondt system is silly, and we will all back you in a vote. There can be no suggestion that Labor is an apologist for, or supporter of, or otherwise enthusiastic about the d'Hondt electoral system; any attempt to run that line out there will be greeted with ridicule. So, having got that clear, your attempted political stunt fails, and let us get on with business.
DR KINLOCH (4.10): It has been delightful to have this chat, and it was good of Mr Moore to initiate it. We all recognise that it is too late in the day; still, we have this delightful, quiet time in the afternoon to make these few comments.
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