Page 1393 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 1993
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MR STEVENSON: Madam Speaker, may I make the point that the attempt by Mr Moore is simply to waste time, or to make some sort of vague point that he sees. It has nothing whatsoever to do with relevance. Perhaps that point could be made when he brings up the point of order in the future.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Stevenson. Now, would you please continue.
MR STEVENSON: We are told that the ACT community want to have a direct say in health, education and policing. The statements that many people made here acknowledge that the Federal Government is not democratic; the Federal Government will not listen to the people of Canberra. What a condemnation by people, most of whom are in the parties, against their own parties federally! They acknowledge that they are dictatorial and will not listen to the people of Canberra. The same argument for a so-called State-like government such as in the ACT can be made for any area with some 280,000 people. Why not Blacktown? Why not Newcastle? Why not Geelong in Victoria? Why not the Illawarra region? What a nonsense!
What is the difference? What is the crucial difference in the ACT? The crucial difference is that the ACT has a special place in the Constitution. There is no other place mentioned in the Constitution like the ACT. It is the seat of government. I brought up the very relevant points of the constitutional matters in my debate, and not one of the 16 members who spoke even addressed it. I well recall that on 4 July 1989 I moved that the constitutional legitimacy of the ACT self-government be looked at. But once again we had a 16 : 1 vote because the members here would not even brook looking at the question.
Mr Moore: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker.
MR STEVENSON: Mr Moore makes some statement about the High Court. Let me make a point about the High Court.
Mr Moore: I think once again that Mr Stevenson is reflecting upon a vote of the Assembly. You have mentioned this to him on a number of occasions, Madam Speaker. I would hate to have to raise matters of order to the standing order 200 level.
MADAM SPEAKER: Yes, it might be tedious repetition, Mr Moore. Mr Stevenson, I think "reflect" is very widely interpreted in standing orders, and really it does mean not even talking about them to any extent. I would like you to bear that in mind.
MR STEVENSON: I seek a short extension of time to finish off what I was saying. (Extension of time granted) Mr Kaine said that the Commonwealth is not going to drop everything and abolish self-government or change the self-government Act. The interesting thing is that that is exactly what they did when it came to blocking the ACT being able to develop a contractual arrangement with the Australian Electoral Commission to run the next ACT election. As there was no complaint about that from local members, what then happened was that we established our own ACT Electoral Commission. If you say to people around the country, "We established our own Electoral Commission", they say, "What, in tiny little Canberra?". You say, "Yes".
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