Page 1370 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 1993
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One of the issues on which people will have a view - they will have views about health, about education, about the bus system, about rates and rubbish, about policing - is whether what we have here today is what they really want in terms of a form of government. If they tell us that they would like something different we must look at it. Now comes the public perception precipitated by Matthew and some elements of the media, and stoked up by Mr Wood, that there is a difference of opinion between my leader and me.
Mr Lamont: There is.
MR KAINE: No, there is not. What I said when asked by the media was, "Yes, I have no difficulty with a public debate on this issue, but the public must be informed as to what the issues are". There are a number of issues, some of which have been traversed, and I will run through them again.
The first one is that there happens to be a self-government Act. It is a Commonwealth self-government Act that specifies in some respects the form of government that we have. The only way that can be changed is to persuade the Commonwealth Parliament to change it. If anybody thinks the Commonwealth is going to drop the major issues it has on its agenda to amend the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act today or tomorrow or next week, they are wrong. That is not going to happen. People need to understand that it is not sufficient to say, "We would like a city council", because that does not change anything. There is a huge process that has to go on. When people are asked for that view, they need to be aware that it is not that simple. There is a self-government Act, and one of the things that Act says is that the Assembly will elect a Chief Minister and the Chief Minister will appoint other Ministers. It does not say that the Assembly will elect a lord mayor. That is set in the statute under which we operate. Those things cannot readily be changed. One thing people need to understand is the process of change if they want something different.
The second thing they need to understand is the nature of this Government, the fact that we do run our health system, our education system, our police force. If they opt for some other form of government than that we have now, they have to understand what flows from that - that education and health may well be run by New South Wales from Sydney - and what are the consequences for the community. Again, it is not a simple thing. A simple "Yes, we would like a local council" does not even begin to address the question.
There are the other ramifications I have mentioned, and which the Chief Minister has mentioned. If the community opts for a city council style of government and we change the title of the Chief Minister to lord mayor, we immediately remove ourselves from those forums of influence at the Commonwealth level. Lord mayors and mayors do not sit on the Premiers Conference and they do not sit on the Loan Council and they do not sit on ministerial conferences. So we lose a great deal. As long as the community is aware of that and takes all those factors into account when they venture their opinion about what form of government they want, we cannot do other than accept the result of any public consultation on the process. Whether we agree with it or not is not the point at issue.
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