Page 3800 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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of course, to do the broadcasting. The alternative, I suppose, would be to contract the whole thing out. But that is not free. It would still have a cost to it. I think that that is something that we will have to consider in future Assembly budgets. There are also the legal aspects. I am aware that our proof Hansard is generally not considered to be a public document until it has been published in its final form, and I do not know what sort of legal problems there might be with broadcasting. So, I do share Mr Moore's position that it would probably be better to achieve the broadcasting by way of legislation that did cover all of the issues and offered proper protection, both to the Assembly and to the broadcasters. I think that is an important point.
Finally, Madam Speaker, I make one last point. I would like to say that this matter of broadcasting is not one for the Government alone, as I am sure members appreciate. It does concern the whole Assembly, and in particular the Administration and Procedures Committee of the Assembly. If we are to proceed, it would be appropriate for the Administration and Procedures Committee to take a reference on the matter and do some investigation into what kind of broadcast method would be the most suitable for this Assembly, and what the costs might be, and for that inquiry to form the substance of a budget consideration at some future time.
To conclude, Madam Speaker, the Government certainly supports the principle. We believe that it adds to the openness and accessibility of the Assembly's procedures. We also believe that the more that the Canberra community knows about its Assembly the better. If there are things about the Assembly that they want to change, they are then, at least, in an informed position to make those kinds of statements. In terms of the debate on democracy, on the nature of our federation, on citizenship and so on, the parliaments of Australia have to be absolutely transparent to their communities in all of their processes and all of their procedures. That places an additional burden on members of parliaments; there is no doubt about that. It is not a burden which we should face lightly. We have experience now from some other parliaments which do broadcast. I think we can learn from their experience. When we do come to broadcast the Assembly proceedings, as I am sure we will, we can make sure that it occurs here in a way that actually reinforces the democratic process, in a way that does provide better information and better accessibility to the community, rather than add, as unfortunately happened in some past instances, to the public cynicism and distrust about the whole political process. They are some thoughts that I provide on behalf of the Government, Madam Speaker. I think the debate that Mr Moore has started is timely, and we support him in principle.
MR HUMPHRIES (4.22): Madam Speaker, on behalf of my party I also indicate that we see advantages in there being a process for the broadcasting or telecasting of the proceedings of this Assembly. The debate about the effect of broadcasting on the work of the parliament and the implications for the conduct of debates in that parliament has gone on for some time. I can recall being in Britain in, I think, 1975 when broadcasting of the proceedings of the House of Commons began for the first time. There was intense debate in the community at that time about the effect that this broadcasting would have on the performance of members of the House of Commons. Since that time the British Parliament has adopted both broadcasting and telecasting of proceedings of the parliament. I do not believe that the overall verdict of the British people is adverse to this process, although there may be some academics or experts on the subject of parliamentary practice who might take a different view. Certainly, Mr Deputy Speaker, it is the
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