Page 4836 - Week 15 - Thursday, 8 December 1994
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MR MOORE (4.40): Madam Speaker, yesterday I spoke about one opinion from that department. These opinions are still given in good faith. There is no question about that. It seems to me that, if we are talking about danger and uncertainty, there is far less danger and uncertainty associated with this Bill than there is in not entrenching these provisions. I think that is the critical thing. Often, in this house, we make decisions on a cost-benefit analysis - not in economic terms, but in terms of the broad range of issues that come before us. To answer the sorts of issues that Mr Stevenson has raised, on a cost-benefit analysis it is far better for us to proceed with this Bill than it is for us to vote it down.
Madam Speaker, I think that the amendment moved by Mr Humphries makes a significant improvement to the original Bill. The Chief Minister has now clarified her amendment. She said that she is using the term "compulsory voting" in the normal way in which we use it. That is my understanding of it as well, and that is why I intend to support the amendment. Generally, with a couple of minor exemptions, such as those that are in the Electoral Act at the moment, it should be compulsory for people to attend the ballot place and to take a ballot paper. What people do with it - whether they vote or not - is, of course, a private matter. We probably ought to be using the term "compulsory attendance"; but we can use the term "compulsory voting" generally. Australians understand exactly what we mean by the term and how it should be interpreted.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (4.42): Very briefly, Madam Speaker, for Mr Stevenson's benefit, I would like to explain the advice that I have had that Mr Humphries's proposal is "fraught with danger and uncertainty". I refer there to the legal effect of Mr Humphries's Bill and its amendments and to the point which I have raised repeatedly, which is that Mr Humphries's Bill seeks to entrench principles rather than specific provisions of the law. So, the reference to "danger and uncertainty" is a reference to the legal enforceability of this law, the readiness with which it might be challenged and the difficulty, if there were any challenge, of clarifying just what it was that the law meant, because it refers only to principles, not to black-letter law. Madam Speaker, I raise that as a point which has been made to me by people technically qualified to make such points, and I am passing it on to the Assembly. Of course, there would be that danger and uncertainty only if there were to be a challenge to this law. In my view, that is probably unlikely.
Amendment (Ms Follett's) agreed to.
Amendment (Mr Humphries's), as amended, agreed to.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (4.44): Madam Speaker, I move:
Page 2, line 36, add the following subclause:
"(2) This Act applies to any law made pursuant to a power at any time vested in the Legislative Assembly to make a law with respect to the number of members of the Legislative Assembly.".
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