Page 1387 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 1993
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MR MOORE: But this issue, currently - - -
Mr Stevenson: You have not got a clue, Michael. You are talking through your hat.
MR MOORE: Maybe he put himself on the electoral roll a bit late. The issue here is that our new Leader of the Opposition, the new Liberal leader, got caught out on the radio. With a bit of inexperience she answered a question with one word, "Yes". That is very silly on the radio. She said, "In simple terms, yes". It would have been far better to have explained where you were. I would claim that the truth of the matter is that there is not one person, not a single person in this Assembly, who would genuinely change this form of parliament that we have, other than to make some modifications to how the system works. That is the backdown we have already heard from the Liberals today. I accept that there are some modifications that all of us would be interested in and would accept, but there is not one person here who would change the form in the sense of Mr Stevenson's motion.
I would say that Mr Stevenson, over the last four years, basically has continued to dupe a small section of the community - that section of the community is getting smaller and smaller - over what - - -
Mr Stevenson: You would say that only in here. You would not say that outside.
MR MOORE: Mr Stevenson interjects that I would say that only in here; that I would never say it outside. That is absolutely correct. Why would I be so stupid? That is one of the advantages of having a parliamentary form of democracy. We have the protection of the parliament to say things. That is why I will continue to say a number of other things. Mr Stevenson's real agenda was to get in here to be part of a parliament in order to run his own agenda right across Australia, and that agenda is akin to the hard right, to the League of Rights, to the new world order. He runs all those issues.
Only a few minutes ago Mr Stevenson commented about a referendum. His comment was, "Yes, that fraud of an electoral system". The one genuine form of polling that was done was a referendum, and that referendum was on our form of electoral system. Now Mr Stevenson rejects that as a fraud because the question - - -
Mr Stevenson: Do you deny that they did not ask the other questions?
MR MOORE: He rejects that because the question was not what he wanted. As far as his polling goes, the question is always what everybody wants, so there is never a fraud; we have one result.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! You will have your turn, Mr Stevenson.
MR MOORE: It seems to me that, if Mr Stevenson was really genuine about his polling and about community interest, his question, and he would live by it, would be: "Should someone who is elected to abolish self-government resign?". The answer would be overwhelmingly yes. There is no doubt at all about that. Of course, he will not ask that question. It comes back to the same thing over his calling the referendum a fraud; it is about the questions you ask. It is about the questions you ask, Mr Stevenson. That is why you are a fraud; that is why you continue to dupe a small section of the people of Canberra.
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