Page 3591 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 19 October 1993
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Mrs Grassby: Madam Speaker, I object to that statement.
MADAM SPEAKER: I am sorry; I was distracted at that point of time, Mrs Grassby.
Ms Ellis: You were very lucky, Madam Speaker. Please do not ask him to repeat it.
MR STEVENSON: I am trying to get on. We are running out of time.
MADAM SPEAKER: Yes, I gather that, Mr Stevenson; but perhaps you could refrain from making statements that upset people. Would you continue, please?
MR STEVENSON: Perhaps I could say that, before the debate finishes, we may see someone within the Labor Party stand up and talk about the people as they once would have, a long time ago.
MR CORNWELL (4.29): Madam Speaker, this report on 2020 is something of a wish list. It shows, I think, an optimism; but it does reflect, perhaps, the aspirations and the dreams of people 27 years hence. Therefore I reflected on what it was like here 27 years ago. As members may remember, the lake had just been established in 1966; Sir Robert Menzies had just stepped down as Prime Minister; there was an advisory council here in the ACT, not self-government; the suburb of Curtin had just been established, and the rest of the Woden Valley, Tuggeranong and Belconnen had not even been considered. There was, however, work for all. There was confidence in the future. There was law and order. There was faith. I wondered, therefore, whether we could say the same thing of 1993, and I came to the conclusion that we could not.
I have no real objection to this 2020 report, except that I would hope that it does not encourage the Government to ignore the realities and the problems that beset this city in 1993 and to look too far ahead into the future, to 2020. The problems that affect us today will certainly reflect upon what may happen 27 years down the track if we do not sort them out, if we do not provide some jobs for our young people, if we do not give people a decent future, and if we do not balance our budgets.
I can understand that the members of the committee probably seized upon this wonderful opportunity to gaze into a crystal ball and make up all sorts of decisions and hopes and aspirations. I too, however, wish to place on record that I find their presumption that Australia became a republic in 2001 not just a presumption but an arrogant presumption. I could just as well have written and said that this country and this city were in ruins because of a debilitating civil war on the question of a republic. There would be nothing to say that that may not occur. That would be equally presumptuous, but it could be just as correct. Part of the problem with this republican debate is the fact that the supporters have found that they are not quite as strong as they thought they were. In certain quarters the idea is, "Let us accept it as a fait accompli. Let us tell all those mugs out there that in fact we are going to have a republic whether they like it or not". They completely forget, and they conveniently forget, that there has to be a referendum before anything of this nature.
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