Page 3357 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 24 November 1992
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Mr Stevenson argues about what form of electoral system we should have. The fact is that, based on an Act of the Commonwealth, there was a referendum, and the people in the ACT were asked to vote on two different systems for what kind of electoral system they would like to have in the future. Perhaps we could have offered them other alternatives. Maybe there could have been a dozen options offered. Perhaps that simply would have confused the issue further. Perhaps we would not have got a clear-cut decision. Again, I happen to believe that the result of the referendum, that we should adopt the Hare-Clark system for future elections in the ACT, was the right one. I know that my political opponents do not agree with that. They would have preferred something different. So, we can each come here and argue that we would like the world to be different from what it is. Such argument is unproductive because, as I said before, we are not free to make our own decisions on some of these issues. The Commonwealth, whose legislation supersedes ours, has made some decisions that have now been imposed upon us and we have to work within the confines of those decisions.
We will be debating the Bill in some detail once the in-principle stage is concluded, and Mr Humphries will be putting forward a quite large number of amendments which we believe will turn this Bill into a better Bill. I would simply say, Madam Speaker, that, despite the fact that we might like to live in a fantasy world, unfortunately we do not. We have to live in a very practical world. The Government brought forward a Bill which it believed was necessary. From what the Chief Minister told us when she tabled it, I think she is right, much as some of us might have preferred to take a different route. That not being open to us, we are now compelled to look at what the Government has presented, with good intent, I believe, to fulfil the commitment of this Government, which the Opposition totally agrees with, to put into effect the result of the referendum that was held last February.
Despite Mr Stevenson's opposition to self-government itself, despite his opposition to anything that will make self-government work properly, despite his opposition even to anything that the Opposition and the Government might happen to agree upon, representing a very large majority of the members in this Assembly, I think that there is a course of action that is open to us. We do not have much room to move. We should proceed to put this Bill into place quickly to fulfil our obligations to the electorate and to the people of Canberra, and I think that with Mr Humphries's amendments we will end up with a Bill that should satisfy most people.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (8.20), in reply: I would like to thank members for their contributions to the debate on this Bill, and just reiterate that the Electoral Bill that we have before us establishes an ACT Electoral Commission and sets out the procedures for determining electoral boundaries for ACT elections. So, the Bill, as some members have commented, is but the first of a two-part process of establishing the rules for the next ACT election.
Madam Speaker, I would like to comment on some comments that members have put forward. Several speakers made a point of saying that they are rather regretful that the Australian Electoral Commission will not be conducting the ACT's elections for us. The facts are, firstly, that as the Australian Electoral Commission's legislation currently stands they could not do that. There would
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