Page 2117 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 9 September 1992
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commission that the ACT Government intends to introduce before the end of this year. The Chief Minister told us yesterday that before the end of this year there would be in place - that is, passed and in place - legislation to establish an ACT electoral commission. I can only assume, therefore, that this public servant starting work in the Chief Minister's area will be dedicated to that task.
But my understanding of the matter is that the officer who the Chief Minister proudly announced was getting on with the job of preparing all this work for the ACT Government in fact began work in the Chief Minister's area, under her aegis, on Monday of this week - two days ago and one day before she answered the dorothy dixer, again from Mrs Grassby, on what progress was being made by the ACT Government in this matter.
Mr Connolly: It was from Ms Szuty.
MR HUMPHRIES: I beg your pardon. It was from Ms Szuty. That really changes things! The dorothy dixer from Ms Szuty said, "What are you doing?". Ms Follett answered, "We have an officer working on this matter - - -
Ms Follett: Madam Speaker, I raise a point of order. In defence of Ms Szuty, I submit that the term "dorothy dixer" implies that there was some collusion on this question between me and Ms Szuty. That is not the case. I think the term imputes quite improper motives and should be withdrawn.
MR HUMPHRIES: I withdraw. Ms Szuty asked, "What are you doing?". The answer came back, "We have an officer working on this matter". The officer, it turned out, had been in place for barely 24 hours - hardly an indication of great priority on this matter. It is quite reasonable to assume that that officer came on board as a result of the pressure put on the ACT Government last week by the raising of this issue - the matters that the Chief Minister herself said were beaten up by the Opposition. It did produce one result. It got action from the Government and it got an officer in place to attend to this matter.
Madam Speaker, there are two more things I want to raise before I sit down. One is the fact that it is not just the Opposition which is concerned about the progress the Government is making. I quote Dr Scott Bennett from the ANU speaking on the Matthew Abraham program just this week. He was asked: "Well, is time beginning to tick away if we want to get Hare-Clark comfortably and properly in place?". Dr Bennett said: "Well, when you think of all that would need to be done, in particular the arrangements for drawing up the electorate, then we'd have to, I would think, be moving sooner rather than later because that sort of process can take a long time". The Opposition is telling the Government that; the academic world is telling the Government that. Everybody but the Government's own members, it seems, is telling it that it needs to be getting into action on this matter.
The second question, Madam Speaker, is the disturbing question of just what the Government is going to do. I have heard the Chief Minister say several times in the house that her Government is in favour of implementing the result of the referendum. But there is a painful lack of willingness on the part of the Chief Minister to say what that means. Just how far does that go? I have here the referendum options paper distributed to all electors of the ACT just before the referendum. It set out what Hare-Clark was all about. It gave a point by point
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