Page 1856 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 15 June 1993
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By and large, it is not an issue for partisan political debate under our system. To create this proposed regime would be to say that the appointment of every person to an executive office - to a statutory authority, to a board, to an advisory board - would become fair game for partisan political debate.
In a community as small as Canberra, where virtually everybody knows everybody else and where most people with some sort of public profile who might be expected to serve on various boards have at some stage had some connection with Liberal members or Labor members, or whatever - - -
Mr De Domenico: Or both.
MR CONNOLLY: Or both. We would have a system under which everyone was subject to attack from the opponents of the government of the day.
Mr De Domenico: Speak for yourself.
MR CONNOLLY: Your speech tonight was an attack on a member of Mr Berry's staff. This sort of ad hominem attack is common from the Liberals. Mr Stevenson, of course, has distinguished himself - if that is the word - with this sort of go-for-the-person attack. It is a very dangerous proposal. I can understand that you are annoyed that the Independents are not supporting you on the TAB Bill and you are annoyed that your argument on the merits of the TAB Bill is going to be knocked off. But you are retaliating late in the evening with a proposal that is really fraught with danger.
Members opposite who have experience of serving in government, I really question whether you would have been comfortable with the sort of process that you propose. If you decide to use this for partisan political advantage in the future by running these sorts of attacks, as you inevitably will, you will be going down a very slippery slope to the creation of a system of public administration which is unworkable. Any commentator on the American system at the moment would say that one of the fundamental problems is the way this process of partisan attack on appointments has got right out of hand. It means that ordinary citizens are very reluctant to take up any role in government, because they know that they are going to subject themselves to a whole process of character assassination and smearing.
Madam Speaker, if I learnt anything when I was overseas, I learnt that. I thought how fortunate we are in this country that we do not have such a stupid system, only to come back to the first day back in the Assembly and see the Liberals proposing just this sort of stupid system in the Assembly. I know why you are doing it. It is all a part of being upset about the TAB Bill, which will be passed. But what you are proposing is a very dangerous course of action which can lead to really serious consequences for public administration of this Territory. No other jurisdiction in Australia, or indeed in the Westminster system, adopts this course of action. It is very much the American system, and it is a very bad and dangerous system in that jurisdiction.
MR KAINE (11.02): Madam Speaker, Mr Connolly just showed that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. You send him to America for 10 days and he is suddenly an expert on American politics. Everything that he said was dead wrong. First of all, the sorts of officials who are put through the griller in the American system are not people appointed to boards; they are people appointed as secretaries of departments.
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