Page 3588 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 19 October 1993
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MR STEVENSON (4.19): I rise to draw attention to a vision without which I do not believe that Canberra will prosper at all. The vision I talk about is representative democracy. I think the opposite is epitomised by what happened to the coat of arms in Canberra. If we look at the coat of arms behind your seat and above your head, Madam Speaker, we see a crown at the top and a scroll at the bottom. From this distance you cannot read it, but I know what it says. It says:
For the Queen, the Law and the People.
First of all, the crown stands for our constitutional monarchical heritage. I believe that it is the greatest form of government that has ever been devised on the planet. I am happy to debate anybody publicly, should they wish to have a say on it. It is useless doing so in this place; it does not go anywhere. When we look at the scroll, "For the Queen, the Law, and the People", why were the words removed? One could say that there was not enough room, but the truth of the matter is that they were removed by a group of people who find each of them an absolute anathema. They cannot stand the Queen, they cannot stand the law, and often break it, and, from their actions, they find the people quite repugnant.
What I would do is look at what has happened throughout this nation and throughout the world. We find that there is a move towards people regaining control of their lives, regaining control of their government. Most governments throughout the world are not even called democratic. Ours is. It is not democratic, but it is called democratic. There are things that can be done that would make it democratic. Government should be closer to the people, not further away.
One of the very good ways of achieving this is through precinct groups. I have heard about precinct groups for a long time and I have spoken about them, but I never actually knew how they could work. I thought, "Well, what is the good of setting up precincts all around Canberra, or anywhere else; the politicians will only ignore them. What is the use?". Then I found the answer in Manly, Sydney. The answer was that they have a full-time paid precinct officer. Paid by whom? By the people, of course. It is the people who pay anyone in government. What that precinct officer does is liaise between the 11 or 12 precincts in the Manly area, the council staff and the councillors. I have spoken to the precinct officer and the people and they think it is a great idea. Even most of the councillors think it is a good idea.
What would happen when you had the precincts and a precinct officer to make sure that these things happen? You would see that there would be consultation. No, I do not mean what we get here. I do not mean the word "consultation" being used often. I actually mean consultation. That is where you get out and you talk to people. You ask them what they want done, ask them what their concerns are, listen to them and accept most of the concerns and change things; you do not then ride roughshod with a steamroller across their ideas and do what you wanted anyway. There would be a minimum of 60 days for the people to have an opportunity to find out what was going on, unless it was agreed in council or in the Assembly, which should be a council anyway, to be an urgent matter or one of a minor administrative nature.
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