Page 4690 - Week 15 - Thursday, 21 November 1991
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As Mr Humphries said, I said that if single-member electorates got up it would be good for Canberra. A win in all 17 seats, impossible as it is, would be better for Canberra than the system which elected the people in this Assembly. I do not wish to offend anybody, but I could run through a list of people who would not be elected under a single-member electorate system, and that would please the people of the ACT no end.
I think this is a waste of time. I do not think it ought to be considered in the form of a motion, but if it is put in that form I will be moving an amendment to it because it is obviously silly to suggest that there ought to be a Senate electoral system. It will never happen; it is a crazy motion; it ought not to have been brought before this house. It does Mr Moore no good; in fact, it discredits him to bring this matter before this Assembly. I think it is a silly thing to do, and I just do not see any positive outcome from it.
In my view, now the way forward for this Assembly is that it has been set in concrete, as far as can be made out, that there will be a referendum. Whether or not single-member electorates are decided upon is another matter. We feel confident that they will get up because we feel that the thinking people of the ACT will go for an electoral system which is best for them and the ACT. They will not support an electoral system that will allow fringe dwellers to be elected again. After all, that is why the fringe dwellers of this Assembly support the Hare-Clark system. No greater support has been given to that than has been given by the greatest fringe dweller of all, Craig Duby, by naming his own party after it.
The Labor Party supports a system of local-member electorates in which people would have access to their local members. There will, I am confident, be a system of local-member electorates after the next election, and they will have one Labor person in each of them because Labor has satisfied the interests of the people of the ACT. Labor is the only party that is able to develop policies which are consistent with the social needs of the Territory; it is the only party which will develop policies to which it will adhere; it is the only party which develops the sorts of policies which the people of the ACT want and will vote for. People voted for the Labor Party because of its commitment to education and health and all of those important social benefits.
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The time for this discussion has expired.
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