Page 2128 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 9 September 1992
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"We have been discussing with the Commonwealth and we have been talking about section 48 and section 67C". Neither of them has anything to do with the introduction of an electoral system. There is only one part of the self-government Act that needs to be amended to allow the introduction of the Hare-Clark system, and it is neither section 48 nor section 67C. In other words, the Government is looking at amendments to the self-government Act that have nothing to do with the introduction of the Hare-Clark system. I guess that speaks for itself. Other rather minor elements and minor aspects of the self-government Act have been consuming their time entirely and they really have not done anything about introducing an electoral system.
I presume that Mr Lamont will jump to his feet in a few minutes, if he has any time left, and he will say, "Ah, but we have told you what our program is". The Government has not told us what its program is. Typically, in this, as in everything that the Government does, it does not lay its cards on the table and tell us or the electorate what it is doing. By a process similar to extracting teeth we have discovered that the Chief Minister intends to get the electoral boundaries fixed by the end of 1993. That is - - -
Mr Connolly: Ms Szuty found that out. The Liberals didn't. They did not ask the question.
MR KAINE: It does not matter how we found out; it was extracted from the Chief Minister. She has not volunteered any information.
Mr Connolly: All you had to do was ask the question. You had not asked it for weeks. It is the Independents.
MR KAINE: I can understand why Ms Szuty is so concerned. Of all of the members in the Assembly who might be concerned about whether they are going to have to go to an election with a Hare-Clark system or some other system in 2 years' time, probably Ms Szuty is the one who would be most concerned because her chances are diminished under this system. Under the present system all she had to do was to get a percentage of the total voting population spread right across Canberra. Under the Hare-Clark system, if it is three electorates - Mr Stevenson talked about the three electorates - she has to get a much higher percentage in a limited geographic area. So of course it is of concern to Ms Szuty as to whether we are going to have the Hare-Clark system and whether we are going to have three electorates or some other system.
We have not heard from the Chief Minister yet that there are going to be three electorates. Mr Stevenson is dead right; there can be anything between one and infinity. The Chief Minister has not told us yet what she is going to do. But she does tell us that there will be electoral boundaries 18 months from now. There will be some determination of electoral boundaries and there will be an ACT electoral commission by the end of 1992. Well, that is still a long way off. That is all she has told us.
What about the rest of the program? I still do not know the Government's program in terms of introducing the Hare-Clark system. I certainly do not know whether we are going to get Robson rotation or not. We get fobbed off by Mr Connolly with his smart remarks, such as, "We are going to introduce what
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