Page 2925 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 September 1994
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go to adequately address the issue. In closing, Madam Speaker, I hope that the Government - in particular, the Chief Minister - will consider the issues that I have raised during this debate today. I would be very happy to discuss the issues with her further and acquaint her with the document that I quoted from during my speech in this matter of public importance debate today, if she chooses to do so.
MR STEVENSON (3.48): There is no doubt that the Labor Party has introduced some systems that increase consultation. As the Chief Minister mentioned, there have been a couple of household surveys. Surveying is a good idea. There have also been ads in the papers saying, "Have your say". It is a good idea for people to have their say. There have been a number of other things that have been used even by other people in this Assembly, and that is valuable. However, when you talk about consultation, first of all, you could say that consultation is working together. That would perhaps be a relevant thing. To mention CIR together with consultation is unusual because usually you do not need CIR until you have had a breakdown of consultation. There is no reason to use it in most cases.
Let us say that there are half-a-dozen very important issues that people are very concerned about in any community - say, the ACT. Any of us could get a small team of people together, go out and survey over a few days, after making sure that you are asking fair questions. In 90 per cent of cases, or better, you would know without a shadow of a doubt what the viewpoint of most people in Canberra is on various issues. That is a far better thing to do than to go straight to a referendum. Why hold a referendum on things that are obvious? It would be like holding a referendum on whether or not Canberrans want to have a say via referendums. If ever there was a waste of money, that is it. You can find that out rather easily by going and grabbing a few people and asking them. Logic would tell us that people find it beneficial to have a say in how their lives are run. There are a number of different ways that could be used in the ACT to increase community involvement and increase the results. Is that not what we are really talking about, or should be talking about - the results we get in our community? It is not to do with consultation; it is to do with results, what happens.
Before you talk about consultation, people letting us know, there is a major factor. The major factor that comes first is giving people information so that they can make the best informed decision possible. Even when people are not informed, when you ask a large number of people or a good cross-section of people, they almost inevitably make better decisions than any small group, be they politicians or any other group making a decision. I do not think there is anything miraculous about that. It is simply that if you ask a greater cross-section of people you get some that are employed, some that are not employed; some women, some men; some younger people, some older people; some white-collar workers, some blue-collar workers; some people in the Services; some people in small business, some people in the unions; et cetera. You get a very good cross-section, and that is the whole idea.
One of the things that we could do in letting people know about issues is establish a special interest list.
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