Page 1250 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
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Madam Speaker, I believe that we have here, with some reservations, some qualifications, a pretty good electoral system. I believe that this system will win not just the understanding but the hearts and minds of Canberrans within a short period. I believe that we will see a system here which people will have confidence in, and that they will adhere to through thick and thin. They will see this as a system which delivers to them something which they want, and that is the power to make decisions about the future of their governments and the candidates who get elected to run those governments in future years.
Mr Berry obviously has not quite given up the prospect that single-member electorates might be enacted in the ACT. We have deliberately chosen a system which is very good and which will stand on its own two feet against the odds. I believe that that is a system we have enacted through the passage of this Bill and the Bill which was voted on this evening. I commend these Bills to the house. I hope that we see, in doing this, the creation of a system in which we can have some pride in years to come.
MR MOORE (7.37): Madam Speaker, in the same tenor as Mr Humphries, I realised that the Electoral (Amendment) Bill, when it was originally introduced, would cause some conflict. There has been some animosity, in fact, over the Bill; but I think the end result is excellent. There are some things in it that I disagree with, and there are some things in it that other people disagree with; but more important than all those things, Madam Speaker, has been the process of consultation. We have been able to have briefings at very short notice. The Chief Minister was willing to make her advisers available to us. It is unusual to mention names, Madam Speaker, but Mr Wedgwood and Mr Green have been particularly helpful to us at all times. Through you, Madam Speaker, and the Chief Minister, I would like to thank them for that. I appreciate that on a number of occasions we have, in the end, on balance, gone in a different direction; but even on those occasions their advice has been invaluable in assisting us in making what we perceive to be an informed decision. I think I can speak for Ms Szuty on that point. I think that the people of the ACT will do very well by the Electoral (Amendment) Act and the consequential provisions put through this house. I look forward, Madam Speaker, to revisiting this Act in a year or so, when we can iron out the last few little wrinkles.
MR STEVENSON (7.39): Madam Speaker, the Bill fairly puts in place the decision of the people at the 1992 referendum. From that point of view it is fair. The fact that it did not reflect what should have happened at the 1992 referendum is a travesty of democracy and justice. I believe that, given a chance, the people would correct that, as they will correct most injustices.
MS SZUTY (7.39): Madam Speaker, like my colleague Mr Moore, I would like to commend the process that this Assembly has been through in the consideration of this Bill. I note that the Chief Minister, at the end of last year, said to this Assembly, and I believe said publicly, that she was willing to negotiate the provisions of the Bill and to discuss the various amendments which would be proposed by all members. I think the process that we have been through in considering this Bill has been very much a reflection of her willingness to do that. There have been some contentious issues. We have talked about above-the-line voting and the banning of how-to-vote cards perhaps more strenuously than some of the other issues.
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