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Canberra Times . . Page.. 706 ..

Mr Moore: It was the same with slavery, Tony.

MR DE DOMENICO: You spoke in silence, Mr Moore. I did not interject.

There has been no great public outburst. People are not saying, “The most important thing this Assembly has to do this year is to get rid of the prayer”. Not one. In fact, the opposite has happened. Mr Cornwell read out the letters from the various churches. I agree that one would expect the churches to say that. But I also believe that we are here to reflect the views of the majority of Canberrans.

Mr Moore: And to protect the rights of the minority.

MR DE DOMENICO: And to protect the rights of the minority as well. Thank you, Mr Moore, for the interjection. It is a very intelligent one and I will take it on board in a minute. The majority, I am told, by all sorts of people, are in fact Christians. There was an article in the Canberra Times on 10 June 1993 that said:

The number of Australians calling themselves Christians increased by 1.1 million between 1986 and 1991, according to a Monash University study.

The study shows that 76.6 per cent of Australians call themselves Christians, 1.6 per cent more than in 1986.

It gives the breakdown of the various religions. I do not think we should concentrate on the breakdown of the various religions. Evidence suggests that the majority of Australians call themselves Christians. There is no reason to believe that the Canberra community does not reflect the majority of Australians, so we can take that on board as well.

Mr Berry: It is an irrelevant argument.

MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Berry says that it is relevant. You may think it is - - -

Mr Berry: It is an irrelevant argument.

MR DE DOMENICO: It is what? What did you say? What is the word you used?

Mr Berry: I said, “It is an irrelevant argument”.

MR DE DOMENICO: That is your opinion. You are entitled to your opinion, and, hopefully, I am entitled to mine. I am disagreeing with you.

What, really, does the Canberra community think about this? Besides going to the churches, whom do you think you should go to? The Ethnic Communities Council has been mentioned. We should go to the Ethnic Communities Council. My long experience with the ethnic communities in Canberra tells me that the Ethnic Communities Council

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