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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4375 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

if I am not right - is that at that time there was bipartisan support for that change. We will put one thing on record. On both those occasions the Labor Party, at the Federal level, supported four-year terms.

It is also, therefore, surprising that, when the legislation to provide for the establishment of the ACT Legislative Assembly was proposed in 1988 by Mr Clyde Holding, only three-year terms were provided for. It always seemed to me to be curious that a party which had argued strongly for four-year terms both at the Federal level and in State manifestations should put forward only three-year terms when it actually had almost a free hand to create a parliament in its own right. That does seem to me to be an odd situation.

Mr Whitecross: No wonder people say that you cannot be trusted, Gary.

MR HUMPHRIES: I do not know whether we are getting into a vast free-for-all, but Mr Whitecross has just suggested that the Government cannot be trusted on this. I think we have let the cat out of the bag with this one. I will not take a point of order, but I think we have let ourselves go down a rather slippery slide with this.

MR SPEAKER: I would caution members against interjections.

Ms McRae: I think deafness is in order; really I do.

MR HUMPHRIES: It is very hard to be deaf when there are quite a few interjections. There is an admission from a former Speaker, Mr Speaker, if ever I have heard one.

Ms McRae: I was very deaf, particularly to things from your side.

MR HUMPHRIES: Constructive deafness. There is an admission we should record, Mr Speaker.

Ms McRae: Yes, I commend it, Mr Speaker.

MR HUMPHRIES: She confesses. Notwithstanding the legacy of this matter in the ACT Assembly, there have been two attempts to establish four-year terms in this parliament. This is the second attempt. The first attempt was in legislation tabled by the then Chief Minister, Ms Follett, in 1993 to establish, among other things, a new electoral system for the ACT and to implement four-year terms. Four-year terms may or may not be the policy of the Labor Party. I suppose we shall soon hear whether it is or it is not.

There are arguments, I think it is true to say, both for and against the establishment of four-year terms in this particular parliament. In all cases, the cases both for and against are based very much on the particular circumstances of the parliament concerned. It is probably true to say that an argument may apply in, say, Queensland which does not apply in South Australia, and vice versa. The arguments for change are certainly significant. I think anybody who has worked in government would be quick to acknowledge that the productive period of government, the period during which

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