Page 1379 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 1993
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What we see, Madam Speaker, is a ragtag - that is the best and most generous description you can put here of what these people have attempted to do. Mr Stevenson has been absolutely consistent in the way he has approached the issue he has put this afternoon. The Labor Party will not be supporting the proposition, because we believe that, in terms of the way in which this issue has been portrayed, Dennis has been consistently wrong.
MR CORNWELL (4.28): Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to Mr Stevenson's supposed populist speech. I do not believe, however, that he has any convincing backing out there in the community to suggest, as he did, the motion he has put down on the notice paper. It is Mr Stevenson's motion; he is entitled to put forward the motion, but he has not got the backing of the community, in my opinion. One thing I would like to say before I explain that is that, as far as I am concerned, self-determination is not negotiable. We have to accept our responsibilities in this Territory for our actions. Other people on both sides of the house, I am pleased to say, have made that quite clear. It is an absurdity to suggest that the Commonwealth Government is going to take back the responsibility for this Territory. I was certainly one who was most actively involved in the self-government push, but I would never delude myself into imagining that those groups of which I was a member were responsible for achieving self-government.
The simple fact is that the Federal Parliament got fed up with looking after the ACT. I remember quite vividly an issue involving the Melba pharmacy which ended up on the desk of the Federal Minister for Health. Michael MacKellar probably did not even know where Melba was, but it ended up on his desk. What an absurdity! The question of whether or not a pharmacy in a health centre should stay open or not ended up on the desk of the Federal Minister for Health. That is what Mr Stevenson is suggesting this Territory of almost 300,000 people should go back to. I can assure you that, if we are stupid enough to support that view, the Federal Parliament certainly will not be. They do not want to get involved in this.
Debate interrupted.
ADJOURNMENT
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! It being 4.30 pm, I propose the question:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr Berry: I require the question to put forthwith without debate.
Question resolved in the negative.
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