Page 5078 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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One of the other important things to do with any Bill that comes before the Assembly that we have done consistently - and when I refer to "we" I mean my party - is to ask the people of Canberra what they want done with that Bill. The most valid way to find that out is by asking the people. Once you ask some 600 or 1,000 people in Canberra whether they agree or disagree with a particular Bill, if the majority is in the high sixties or above, it is very easy to tell what people want done.
Ramming Bills through, as these Bills are being rammed through, does not allow time for members in this Assembly or for parties to poll the people of Canberra and ask them what they want. Indeed, it allows precious little time for anybody in the media to hold telephone polls, polls on the television or polls in the newspapers. There is no time to do that, yet I suggest that that is about the most important thing we should be doing in this Assembly: Representing the people of Canberra. But no, that does not happen. Once again, we need time to research amendments to the Bill.
Mr Berry: Which Bill? You do not even want to pass the equal opportunity Bill. You do not want to debate it.
MR STEVENSON: Mr Berry continually says that I do not want to debate what is called the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Bill. I can assure you that I do want to debate it. I can assure you equally, as you well understand, that I will vote against it; but I will make my reasons well known at that time.
Mr Berry: The White Aryan Resistance would not want an equal opportunity Bill.
MR STEVENSON: Mr Berry makes a comment about White Aryan Resistance or something - and he had a smirk on his face at the time. Once again, I find it deplorable that any member in this Assembly, be he Labor or otherwise, makes such outlandish and untrue statements. What we find again and again, with members of the Labor Party particularly, is that they continually try to denigrate instead of debating the issues.
Mr Berry: What about the anti-treason corps?
MR STEVENSON: If you would like to debate, Mr Berry, in open forum on a particular subject before the Assembly, let me know.
Mr Berry: Does Dennis Stevenson have any connection with the White Aryan Resistance?
MR STEVENSON: Once again, what we have is statements by Mr Berry that are designed not to debate subjects before the house, not to debate anything - - -
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